Ben Draper

Ben Draper is a Sudbury Valley School "lifer." After graduating in 1997 he studied composition briefly at the New England Conservatory of music before going on to pursue his interests in art and philosophy at the school of the Museum of fine arts Boston and tufts university. His work has been shown in the contemporary wing of the Museum of fine arts Boston as well as other galleries in the Boston area. Draper began reading at the age of 17 when a Sudbury Valley staff member loaned him a book on Zen Buddhism. This set him on the Buddhist path which is still on today. Currently, he is studying to become a student of the venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche in the nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In 2012 he helped start the Macomber Center for self-directed learning in Framingham Massachusetts where he is now the executive director. In 2018 he became a Director's Fellow at the MIT Media Lab.