IN SESSION: Design Education: what next?

Ben Evans is the Director of the London Design Festival, which he co-founded in 2003. The Festival celebrates and promotes London as a global design capital. It is the biggest design event in the UK and has inspired similar events in many international cities. It is an annual event involving 350 partner organisations and attracts 1.5 million individual visits. As well as managing the Festival Ben initiates, commissions and curates projects for the event including an annual residency in the V&A museum. In 2016 he added a new activity – The London Design Biennale – where countries present design installations to a theme. Over 80 have now participated in the four editions to date. He is the Executive Director of the Biennale. He has been a governor of the University of the Arts London, a board member of the Roundhouse, and a trustee of Artangel. Between 2017 and 2021 Ben was Chair of the Mayor’s Cultural Leaders Board - a statutory advisory group to the London Mayor. In 2010 he was awarded an honorary fellowship from the Royal College of Art and graduated there in 1989. In 2019 he received a CBE for services to the Creative Industries.

Philip Dodd is the Chairman of the award-winning creative enterprise Made in China (UK) Ltd; and an award-winning BBC broadcaster, author and curator. He has been called a ‘visionary Briton’ by the Australian media for his work between Europe and China and was named one of 50 Design Gurus by Design Magazine. He has written speeches for Ministers and Prime Ministers, executive-produced films with artists such as Damien Hirst and Steve McQueen and has been advisor to major companies in China developing cultural quarters. His company brokered the deal that led to the V&A setting up an outpost in Shenzhen. He has written and edited numerous books on art, film and literature and is one of the curators of this year’s Chengdu Biennale. His company Made in China was given a prestigious Hurun Report Award in 2019 for its work between China and the UK. He has lectured at New York’s Columbia University, UK’s Cambridge University and Beijing’s Renmin University.