James Voorhies is Chief Curator of The Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach where he is responsible for curating long-term and temporary exhibitions, overseeing design and production of publications, organizing artist commissions and public programs, and managing the permanent collection.
Previously, Voorhies was Executive Director of the Tony Smith Foundation where he initiated research programs dedicated to placing the legacy of the modernist artist in dialogue with contemporary art and design, including the Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonné Project—a multi-publication project to be published by MIT Press.
He served in academic leadership positions at California College of the Arts in San Francisco from 2016 to 2021. Before those posts, he held the endowed directorship of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University from 2013 to 2016 where he curated 20 exhibitions, organized over 50 public programs, and edited two books. He also lectured for Harvard’s Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies and Graduate School of Design.
From 2010 to 2013, he taught art history and critical theory at Bennington College in Vermont. He served as Director of Exhibitions at Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio from 2006 to 2011.
Voorhies holds a PhD in modern and contemporary art history from the Ohio State University. He has curated more than 75 exhibitions and site-specific commissions and organized 150 public programs. He is based in Miami Beach and New York City.
