About

About MeI create ambitious work that brings people into the heart of the creative process.

I’m Roopa Basu, an artist, designer and creative engagement consultant. I develop public art, installations and creative programmes for cultural organisations, councils, healthcare settings, communities and businesses. I bring together artistic direction, design thinking and practical delivery to turn complex ideas into strong outcomes.

I work where artistic ideas, people and organisations meet.

Roopa Basu facilitating a participatory workshop with a group gathered around a table

How I workMy role often begins before anyone starts making

I work across the whole life of a project. I help define what it’s trying to achieve, build the creative framework around it, and carry that thinking through to the finished piece.

IDEA >
  • Concept & purpose
  • Context & audience
  • Creative direction
  • Project framing
ENGAGEMENT >
  • Participation approach
  • Access & inclusion
  • Prompts & activities
  • Meaningful contribution
DESIGN >
  • Visual language
  • Colour & composition
  • Materials & format
  • Cohesive outcome
DELIVERY
  • Partners & production
  • Budgets & timelines
  • Logistics & installation
  • Final delivery
Roopa Basu leading a participatory art workshop with a group

My approachDesigning participation

Good participation takes more than an invitation. It depends on the structure around it: the question, materials, pace, choice, access and cultural context; and on whether someone’s contribution genuinely matters to the finished work.

My creative health work, in settings including the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, and Sound Minds, shapes how I think about access, confidence and cultural relevance from the start.

How do we create something meaningful with people, rather than simply for them?

Roopa Basu speaking at the opening of We Art Wandsworth to a large audience
Opening of We Art Wandsworth at Battersea Arts Centre, 2026. Photo: Ewan Michael Riley.

Trained across disciplinesArtist, designer, strategist

I trained in architecture and graphic design, studied Visual Communication at London College of Communication, and have run my own design studio since 2011.

Fifteen years of running a business has made me commercially minded, without losing sight of the creative idea at the centre.

Increasingly, organisations bring me in to help shape creative engagement, co-design and programme development, particularly when there’s an exciting ambition but the route isn’t yet clear.

I don’t only make the work. I help work out what the work should be.

Roopa Basu working with participants on a collaborative public artwork

Global lived experienceA practice shaped by different worlds

Moving between cultures, from Kolkata to New York to London, has shaped how I think about identity, belonging and place. My South Asian heritage runs through my visual language, in colour, textile, pattern and storytelling.

Growing up between Ireland and India shaped an early awareness of place, culture and belonging.
CHILDHOOD

Born in England, raised between Cork and Kolkata, following my father’s career at sea

Newspaper and magazine coverage of Roopa Basu’s Lego architecture as a child in Kolkata
LEGO

Immersed in Lego architecture, featured in Indian newspapers and TV as a “child prodigy”

Roopa Basu’s piano and Brevard Music Centre in the USA
PIANO

Trained at the Calcutta School of Music, then a concert piano scholarship to Brevard, USA

Roopa Basu at work in London, where design, making and creative health come together
NOW

Based in London, where design, making and creative health come together in my work

Awards & fundingAwards

Selected Grants & Commissions

Residencies

Leadership, advisory & speakingLeadership & advisory

  • Programme Lead, We Art Wandsworth
    London Borough of Culture 2025/26
  • Creative Industries Employer Advisory Panel,
    South Thames College, 2019 – 
  • Creative Partners Group,
    Battersea Arts Centre, 2021 – 2024

Judging, Panels & Speaking

  • Panel speaker, London Borough of Culture Impact Sharing & Celebration
    Battersea Arts Centre, Oct 2026
  • Panel member, Creative Health: Artists, Communities and Wellbeing
    Battersea Arts Centre, Mar 2026
  • Panel member, Building Your Creative Network
    Royal Academy of Dance (LBOC), Feb 2026
  • Funding panel, Spark Community Fund, 2025
    Assessed arts and community applications · South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust
  • Invited contributor, A Public Address by Quarantine, Battersea Arts Centre, 2025–26
    Public speech: Why I am not a singular identity
  • Assessment panel member, The Agency, Battersea Arts Centre, 2023
    Alongside panellists from Arts Council England and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation

CLIENTS, PARTNERS & FUNDERS

Logos of clients, partners and funders

work with meHave a project, programme or idea that needs shaping?

I’m available for commissions, creative consultancy, programme development, speaking and collaboration.

START A CONVERSATION →

Or email me directly at roopadesignlondon@gmail.com