David Owens-Hill

Executive Director of San Francisco Center for the Book

Education:
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art with a concentration in graphic design, UNC Charlotte (2006)

David Owens-Hill was a first-generation college student when he came to UNC Charlotte. “The faculty met me where I was, and each of them inspired me in ways that my rural upbringing and education didn’t prepare me for,” he told Associate Professor of Art History Jim Frakes in an interview.

David arrived at a time that the graphic design program, under Eldred Hudson (now retired) was booming. “Eldred, more than anyone during my formative years, taught me to think big,” he told Frakes.

After graduating, David worked at the McColl Center in Charlotte and then for Queens University of Charlotte, where he had earned a master’s degree in communications.

In 2012, he left Charlotte for San Francisco to become the Director of Creative Services at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. He crossed the country again for a position as Chief of Staff and Director of External Relations at New York School of Interior Design, but returned to the Bay Area during the pandemic and subsequently worked at California College of the Arts and the San Francisco Symphony before becoming the Executive Director of the San Francisco Center for the Book in the summer of 2024.

As his contribution to the Generations exhibition in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Department of Art & Art History, David chose to showcase one of the exhibitions he created for New York School of Interior Design in 2018, 1:1 / Drawing, Design and Communication.