Ben Evans (director)


Ben Evans CBE is the Director of 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

Evans is Director of 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; along with directing Global Design Forum.
In 2016 he added a new activity—London Design Biennale—with the forthcoming third edition taking place in September 2020. This biannual exhibition, staged at Somerset House, invites participating countries and cities to exhibit original design installations in response to a theme. Installations are 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, a board member of the Roundhouse, and a trustee of Artangel. 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, 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 for services to the creative industries.

Personal life

Evans was born in London in 1963. 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.