Benedict Blackstone Evans

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(born September 1963) is a British designer, currently the director of the London Design Festival, and Executive Director of London Design Biennale, which he co-founded with Sir John Sorrell in 2003 and 2016 consecutively. He is an advocate and campaigner for the creative industries.

Career

The son of Tom Evans and Tessa Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone, Ben Evans is director of the London Design Festival, which he co-founded in 2003, and co-produces with Sir John Sorrell. The Festival is an annual event involving 300 partner organisations and attracts over 900,000 individual visits. As well as managing the Festival, Evans initiates, commissions and curates projects for the event including an annual residency in the

V&A museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

; along with directing Global Design Forum. In 2016 he added a new activity — London Design Biennale — with the third edition taking place in September 2020. This biannual exhibition, staged at

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

, invited participating countries and cities to exhibit original design installations in response to a theme. Installations were curated by museums and design organisations. Evans is the Executive Director of the Biennale. Evans has been a governor of the

University of the Arts London The University of the Arts London is a public collegiate university in London, England, United Kingdom. It specialises in arts, design, fashion, and the performing arts. The university is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of ...

, a board member of the Roundhouse, and a trustee of

Artangel Artangel is a London-based arts organisation founded in 1985 by Roger Took. Directed since 1991 by James Lingwood and Michael Morris, it has commissioned and produced a string of notable site-specific works, plus several projects for TV, film, r ...

. Since 2017 Evans has become Chairman of the Mayor's Cultural Leaders Board—a statutory advisory group to the London Mayor.

Honours and awards

In 2010 Evans was awarded an honorary degree from the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

, having lectured there for a number of years, and graduated from in 1989 with a MA in History Of Design. In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, Evans was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) for services to the creative industries.

Personal life

Evans was born in London. He married architect Amanda Levete in 2007 and has 3 children from his previous marriage. He is the son of Tom Evans and Tessa Blackstone. Evan is an

Arsenal F.C. The Arsenal Football Club, commonly known as simply Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, North London, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. In domestic football, Arsenal h ...

fan. He developed a keen interest in architecture and design upon attending a lecture delivered by

Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British-Italian architect noted for his modernist and constructivist designs in high-tech architecture. He was the founder at Rogers Stirk Harbour + ...

at the age of 15.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Ben Designers from London Living people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Sons of life peers 1963 births