CIVIC & institutional leadership
The shed
DIRECTOR OF CIVIC PROGRAMS
As Director of Civic Programs at The Shed, Darren leads a multidisciplinary team and a portfolio of artist commissions, residencies, public programs, community partnerships, and social-impact initiatives. He manages the annual civic programming budget and contributes to strategy across the institution’s broader artistic portfolio. Working with executive leadership, public agencies, funders, artists, and community partners, he develops programs and institutional frameworks that connect artistic ambition with civic purpose.
Watch Darren discuss The Shed’s Civic work with the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Rudi Goblen’s FITO, Summer 2026, photo by Marc J Franklin
Open Call
LARGE-SCALE COMMISSIONING PROGRAM
Darren leads Open Call, a large-scale commissioning program supporting early-career artists across disciplines. He oversees strategy, artist selection, resource allocation, public engagement, cohort development, and alumni support, helping artists deepen their practices while expanding their audiences and professional networks. Since 2019, Open Call has commissioned more than 125 New York City- based artists and presented their work to tens of thousands of visitors at no cost. Darren has also helped secure significant philanthropic support for the program, while developing new learning, accessibility, and career-development resources for artists.
Read Darren’s quote in the New York Times about commissioned artist Yaa Samar! Dance Theater (2024)
SOCIAL IMPACT
PORTFOLIO OF PROGRAMS
Darren develops The Shed’s social impact initiatives by building sustained partnerships among cultural institutions, public agencies, and community organizations. He is a founding partner of Project Open Arms (resulting in a 2025 Distinguished Partner Award), created with New York City Public Schools to connect families living in temporary housing with essential services, cultural resources, and pathways to support. Across 10 large-scale resource fairs, the initiative has served more than 10,000 families in partnership with over 50 organizations. Other program highlights include: IncludeNYC’s annual Disability-focused resource fair, working with the Board of Elections as a voting site, and collaborating with the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on a cultural reception for their annual global convening.
Troy Anthony’s Pericles, 2024, photo by Tori Mumtaz
SOCIAL PRACTICE ARTIST RESIDENCy
MULTI-YEAR ARTIST RESIDENCY
Darren leads the strategy and development of The Shed’s Social Practice Artist-in-Residence program, which invests in artists who use relationships, participation, and collective practice as central artistic materials. Through sustained residencies, artists receive time, space, resources, and institutional partnership to develop ambitious work alongside communities. Darren has guided projects including Troy Anthony’s intergenerational choir project The Fire Ensemble and Tanya Birl-Torres The Zora Project, building partnerships with organizations across NYC. His leadership focuses on creating conditions in which artistic development, community formation, and public impact can deepen together.
Watch a short feature on The Fire Ensemble (The Shed’s Social Practice Resident from 2022 - 2024).
WEST SIDE CULTURAL NETWORK
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Darren serves on the executive committee of the West Side Cultural Network, a coalition of 23 cultural institutions working collaboratively to strengthen access, visibility, and cultural participation across Manhattan’s West Side. He gathers and translates member priorities, analyzes sector research, helps develop budgets and governance structures, and engages local elected officials. He also helps lead West Side Fest, the network’s annual celebration of free cultural experiences, which in 2026 engaged more than 150,000 people through 60 offerings. His work with the network demonstrates how institutions can combine their reach, resources, and relationships to create shared public value.
A BROADERWAY
FOUNDING PROGRAM DIRECTOR
For 11 years, Darren served as the founding Program Director of A BroaderWay, helping build the organization’s mission, values, programs, and operating infrastructure from the ground up. In partnership with its governing board, he shaped long-term strategy, fundraising, and organizational growth; managed multidisciplinary teams of up to 20 staff, artists, consultants, and advisors; and developed evaluation and leadership systems that supported multi-year engagement with more than 200 young people. He also helped raise over $5 million to sustain and expand an arts-centered model grounded in agency, belonging, and the conviction that every young person deserves to be fully seen and heard.