This arts educator brings a background in program implementation and initiative management to support the Documenters Network.

By City Bureau

Portrait taken by Grace Del Vecchio

We’re excited to welcome David to the team as one of City Bureau’s Documenters Network Site Success Managers!

From sculpting clay to sculpting programs, David is invested in guiding processes to fruition. Based in New York, he joins us with a passion for fostering the sustainability and long-term growth of City Bureau’s Documenters program. 

We asked David to share a bit about his experiences, background, and what he’s bringing to the role. Here are some highlights, edited for length and clarity.

Where are you based, and what are the places you call home? 

I'm based in Westchester County, New York, just north of New York City. I grew up in the area and moved back after college. It’s funny, I never really intended to stay in the area and actively resisted putting down roots for a number of years. But in spite of my best efforts, the relationships—a lot of my family and friends are still here—along with access to the local arts community and being just 20 to 30 minutes away from nature have kept me here.

Tell us more about your professional experience. 

My background is in the visual arts. I've been sculpting since I could form memories, and it's what I studied in school. After undergrad, I started working at Clay Art Center, a community studio in Port Chester, NY. During my time there, I did basically every kind of job at every level of the organization, from front desk work to gallery administration and set-up, and eventually running their adult education program. Being a part of that community was a really valuable experience. I realized that I had a passion for supporting folks on their educational journeys, and for something beyond art for art’s sake. It also crystalized how critical logistics and administrative systems are to keeping a community space running smoothly, and I became a bit obsessed with improving those processes.

I later worked at Lifetime Arts, which is a nonprofit that partners with other organizations to develop arts education programs for older adults. Their work focuses on reducing social isolation, combating ageism, and generally improving quality of life. They do that by providing training and education, running grant-funded initiatives to pilot programs, and offering coaching and technical support. That role allowed me to work with folks from all over the country in a variety of different settings who were really dedicated to supporting their community and building relationships. I found that being able to support them in developing those programs was both meaningful and personally rewarding.

What drew you to City Bureau’s Documenters Network?

One of the primary things that immediately drew me in was the focus on hyper-local work and grassroots community building, while still being a national network of different sites. I was also really inspired by the way the Documenters program equips people to get more involved in their local civic communities, expands that knowledge and education, and then also compensates people for their contributions. 

In my previous roles, one challenge was that we would work with sites just for the duration of a grant initiative. So we would be working with a library system, for example, and we would support them in getting these pilot programs off the ground, and then we’d go, “Okay, we’ll see you later.” That was sort of the end of our connection with them, which means we didn’t always get to see how these programs evolved over time, or if they're getting the support they need to sustain that work. With City Bureau and the Documenters Network, the opportunity to build more sustained, long-term relationships was really exciting to me. 

How do you approach this work? Are there certain values you embrace? 

I start from a place of curiosity, empathy, and respect. There’s no world in which I'm going to know more about a community than the people who are a part of it. On top of that, the folks we get to work with have their own deep knowledge and set of experiences. My role is to support these sites in realizing their vision for this project. I'm there to meet them where they are and offer whatever support is most helpful to them.

To connect with David, feel free to reach out at david@citybureau.org.