Lopa

Lopa is the Founding Director of ELICIT, a social organisation driven to design alternatives for education in conflict impacted territories. She is the Principal, and Director of Design, Research and Development at
Dolphin International School, Pulwama, Kashmir. She has built her skills over 8 years of experience in initiating social change through design thinking and applied theatre arts, in collaboration with private and community schools, non-governmental organisations, media collectives and socio-educational organisations like Teach For India. She has founded and runs Native, a research initiative, working on identifying learning opportunities within livelihood practices. A Social Entrepreneur, Designer, and Educator, Lopa is driven to design strategic educational experiences for learning institutes across a range of socio-economic
communities in India. Lopa has a Advanced Diploma in Design in Education from Srishti School of Art,
Design and Technology, Bangalore, graduated with BA English honours from St. Xavier’s College Ahmedabad and has a certified training in Arts based therapy from BOAT, New Delhi.
Lopa is a recipient of the Acumen Fellowship 2020.

 

"I began my journey as a design thinker at Srishti College of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, where I discussed (in a culminating thesis) designing contextually relevant curriculums for integrating livelihoods and education, such that the former became a medium for the latter. I have worked, ever since, with both adults and children, employing design thinking tools and facilitation techniques to elicit learning.

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Some of my recent works involve designing a ten month long ‘learning by theatre program’, employing theatre and playmaking to construct alternatives to resolve conflicts in the community that mattered to them the most, and in turn initiating social change. A group of 30 children from a Teach For India classroom, through the program, opened Forum for the city of Ahmedabad to express, embody, learn and inspire at a culminating Forum theatre show for the city audience.

 

My initial work involved working with a group of women, in Bangalore, to identify opportunities of learning in everyday practices and to design processes and systems to facilitate self-learning.

The idea then travelled back with me to Ahmedabad, where I also designed and facilitated learning through the practice of surface stitching.

 

I strongly believe in ‘working with and not for’ the learners, and this informs my design practice. I firmly believe in learning beyond boundaries and hence I weave disciplines together and support all things educational.

 

I'm a thinker, believer, designer, educator, performer and most certainly a lover of serendipity! I would love to talk if you share the same interests and wish to collaborate!"