David S. East currently serves as the executive director of the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. With over twenty years of experience as an artist and educator, East is engaged in administration, advocacy, arts practice, education, curatorial work, and writing. East was previously faculty advisor and chair of Ceramics at the Maryland Institute College of Art for seventeen years. He has taught and been a visiting artist at numerous locations, including the University of Missouri-Columbia (assistant professor 2001-2007), Alfred University, Kansas City Art Institute, and the Tainan National College of Art, Tainan, Taiwan. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including in the GICBiennale 2011, 2015, and 2017 in Icheon, Korea, solo exhibitions at the Jane Hartsook Gallery, Greenwich House Pottery, New York, and Schulman Project, Baltimore, Maryland, and many others. He has received numerous awards, including individual artist awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Lighton Foundation, and the McKnight Foundation.

East’s recent work focuses on ceramics, sculpture, installation, and digital fabrication technologies. Recently, his research has focused on architectural and design references revolving around issues of urban planning, architectural ornament, and design as signifiers of our cultural history. He received his B.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Wisconsin, River Falls (1997) and his M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (2000).