Samta Nadeem

Background

About Samta Nadeem

I'm a London-based curator, writer, creative director and cultural producer with an interdisciplinary background that informs my keen perspective on creative cultures and their intersections with contemporary socio-cultural, political, and environmental complexities. I curate and produce events, festivals, talks, and conferences that engage and enrich the creative sector and the wider public. A recent major project was helming the curation of the Architecture and Design Film Festival (NYC) in Mumbai. I've been a founding teammember and currently lead curatorial programming and content curation at STIR—an award-winning global media house and curatorial agency working across art, architecture, and design; alongside being an entrepreneur, mentor, and public speaker. My master's is in Curating Contemporary Design from the Design Museum London and Kingston University partnership programme and I have a thesis that expands the potential of Public Programming within public institutions of contemporary culture, as an instituent practice, through the lens of the 'commons'. Having spoken on multiple public platforms and guest lectured at various design schools in India, I have served in an interim curatorial role at the Design Museum London, developing public programmes with the learning department for exhibitions such as 'Ai Weiwei: Making Sense' and 'The Offbeat Sari'; alongside annual programmes like 'Manifestos','Garden Programme' and more. I regularly chair panel discussions and talks to facilitate the emergence of new perspectives; recently at the Global Design Forum (LDF2024 and LDB2025), Salone del Mobile - Milan, Design Museum London, Istituto Marangoni London, Material Matters, LiGHT24, Isola Milano, RIBA, London Festival of Architecture, CDW etc. Open to collaborating on projects in an individual and/or official capacity.