David Keens has taught at UTA since 1974, and is responsible for building the art glass program. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Craftsman Fellowship as well as other research grants and awards including the University-wide Outstanding Creative Activity/Research Award, and has been inducted to the Academy of Distinguished Scholars. In 2007, The Texas Commission on the Arts and the Texas State Legislature named Keens the official Texas State Artist. His work has been exhibited in major museums and galleries throughout the United States, including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., Minnesota, Phoenix, and Dallas Museums of Art, the Contemporary Crafts Museum in New York city, and many others. He has exhibited throughout Europe, in Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, Finland, and Norway, and in Japan, Mexico, and the Philippines. His work is in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan, Cam Ocagi in Istanbul, Turkey, and other public and private collections throughout the United States including the White House in Washington D.C.