Benny Ferdman, Artistic Director
Benny Ferdman is a visual artist and educator whose work draws from diverse narratives of East European Jewish culture; a culture that once expressed itself in Yiddish—his first language. Born in Sweden after the war to Jewish refugees from Poland/Ukraine, Ferdman was raised in L.A. and has lived and worked in California, New York and Israel.
Focusing on the nexus between nature and culture, Ferdman's journey has led him through broad explorations of diverse cultural realities, to a more intimate engagement with his own East European Jewish traditions and history.
His work is animated by a mix of mythic, folkloric and natural forms, ancient text, the past, the present, language, renewal and contradiction. As an artist he is both rooted in, and bound by, these themes.
Ferdman is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Creative Ways, an L.A based organization promoting dialogue across cultures, generations and communities. His adventurous pursuits have brought him arts residencies and commissions for large sculptures, museum exhibitions and installations, stage sets, the redesign of synagogues and cultural centers, and arts-based curricula throughout North America and Israel.
