David Gersten is an internationally recognized artist, architect, writer, and educator whose work spans drawing, writing, film, performance, pedagogy, and the creation of new cultural and educational infrastructures. Based in New York City, He is the Founding Director and President of Arts Letters & Numbers, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding the experiences understood as education through studios, workshops, residencies, youth programs, mentorship initiatives, exhibitions, performances, and global collaborations at its campus in Averill Park, NY and around the world.
An alumnus of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union, Gersten served on its faculty from 1991 to 2025, holding roles including Distinguished Professor of Architecture, Associate Dean under Dean John Hejduk, Acting Dean, Director of Interdisciplinary Learning, Director of the Civic Projects Lab, and Program Director for Cooper Union’s 165th Anniversary Celebration. His teaching fostered collaborations across the Schools of Art, Architecture, Engineering, and the Humanities, shaping generations of students through studio-based, interdisciplinary learning.
Gersten’s educational work extends globally. He has been a visiting professor at institutions across the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America, including engagements at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Aarhus School of Architecture, Brown University and the United Nations International School.
He has delivered keynote addresses at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Venice Architecture Biennale, UNICEF EXPO in Kazakhstan, CAFA’s Chancellors Summit, Big Picture Learning, Reggio Emilia’s international conference, and numerous universities and cultural institutions. He also co‑directed a collaboration between UNICEF’s Office of Innovation and Arts Letters & Numbers on “Information Poverty: Scarcity in the Age of Distributed Communications,” bringing together leaders working at the intersection of technology, art, education, and social justice.
Gersten’s creative work—including drawings, stories, essays, films, performances, and buildings—has been exhibited internationally and is held in the collections of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the New York Public Library, and private collections around the world. His long‑running project “Hunting Life; A Forever House,” comprising more than 200 stories and architectural drawings, has been exhibited widely and published by Editions Firmin Didot in Paris. He has directed or co‑directed numerous films and performances, often in collaboration with filmmaker Bill Morrison and composer Michael Harrison, including 24 Hours @ Once, Galapagos In C, Oppenheimer’s Table, Suddenly a Chora, Hinges Mirrors and Eclipses, Zoetrope Sun and Constitution.
He has curated major exhibitions, including Cooper Union’s 165th Anniversary timeline exhibition titled ‘A Work in Progress’, shows at the CAFA Museum, the RISD Museum, Omi International Arts Center, Wilmer Jennings Gallery, and multiple international biennials. He directed and curated Arts Letters & Numbers’ exhibitions for the 17th and 18th Venice Architecture Biennales, including SunShip: The Arc That Makes the Flood Possible and Archives: Infinite Fragile Double.
Gersten is currently participating in the Xu Bing Space Art Residency Program, an extraterrestrial residency based on the first satellite of China’s Star Chain of Arts Project. Launched into low Earth orbit in 2024, the satellite serves as a platform for artistic research and projection, including The 25th Hour, a recent transmission of his project 24 Hours @ Once into space.
Earlier in his career, Gersten founded Tree Time Workshop, a 20,000‑square‑foot multidisciplinary design and fabrication studio in New York City that produced hundreds of projects for film, television, theater, music and commercial clients.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the Education Reimagined working group, and serves on the Board of Directors of Big Picture Learning, a network of more than 200 schools worldwide.
David Gersten is the 2026 recipient of the CUAA John Q. Hejduk Award and a member of The Cooper Union Hall of Fame.
