About WOW
The WOW Foundation exists to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a gender equal world is desirable, possible and urgently required.
To date, WOW has worked with 33 partners to present more than 150 festivals and events in 71 places across six continents, with over 5.3 million people taking part.
WOW - Women of the World was founded by Jude Kelly in 2010, when the first WOW Festival took place at Southbank Centre. Since then, WOW Festivals celebrating women and girls, and taking a frank look at the obstacles they face, have taken place across the globe, reaching five million people to date.
Through festivals, events, schools programmes and more, WOW challenges the belief that gender equity has already been achieved – and hopes to join the dots between people, movements and ideas to change the world.
In 2018 Jude Kelly left her role as Artistic Director of Southbank Centre to focus solely on the development of WOW as an independent charity. The WOW Foundation was established to fulfill WOW’s potential.
Her Majesty The Queen is The WOW Foundation’s President.
WOW Festival was originally produced and presented by Southbank Centre.
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About Jude Kelly
Jude Kelly CBE is the Founder of The WOW Foundation. She founded WOW to celebrate the achievements of women and girls and confront global gender injustice. Starting as a three-day festival at London’s Southbank Centre in 2010, where Jude was Artistic Director for 12 years, the festival now takes place in 30 locations across six continents.
In 2018 Jude established The WOW Foundation, an independent charity dedicated to building the WOW movement as a force for change.
Jude has directed over 200 theatre and opera productions, is the recipient of two Olivier Awards, a BASCA Gold Badge Award for contribution to music, a Southbank Award for opera, an RPO award for her festival The Rest is Noise, Women’s Hour’s one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK in 2013, Red Magazine’s 2014 Creative Woman of the Year, CBIs 2016 First Woman Award for Tourism and Leisure and in 2017 the inaugural Veuve Clicquot Woman of the Year Social Purpose Award. She was also headhunted to join the bidding team for the 2012 London Olympics and create the programme for culture and ceremonies, she subsequently advised both Rio and Tokyo on their successful bids.
Jude has founded a range of arts institutions and has commissioned and supported the work of thousands of female artists across all genres.
In 1997, she was awarded an OBE for her services to theatre and in 2015 she was made a CBE for services to the Arts.