James Voorhies is a curator, arts administrator, and writer based in the Hudson Valley. He has worked with major arts organizations—museums, foundations, and universities—through strategic planning, fundraising, and institution building processes in support of their cultural missions. His work develops platforms that support artists and institutional goals through exhibitions, commissions, and interpretive programs while cultivating resources that connect the work to donors and audiences.
Most recently, James served as Curator at Large at The Bass in Miami Beach, where he organized eleven exhibitions and large-scale commissions, produced two publications, and strengthened donor relationships. Prior to this, he was Executive Director of the Tony Smith Foundation, where he oversaw the multi-volume Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonné with The MIT Press, launched fellowships, and commissioned essays and projects by leading artists and scholars.
Earlier, as the inaugural John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, James presented more than seventy exhibitions and public programs, initiated new communications and branding strategies, and worked with Development to secure foundation and donor support. In this endowed directorship, he forged collaborations with academic departments, advanced the institution's mission through new commissions, and elevated its visibility locally and internationally. He has held leadership roles at California College of the Arts and Columbus College of Art & Design, directing programs, stewarding faculty, expanding enrollment, and fostering institutional partnerships.
Alongside his administrative leadership, James has taught art history at Bennington College and lectured at Harvard University. He holds a PhD in Modern and Contemporary Art History from the Ohio State University and is the author of Postsensual Aesthetics: The Logic of the Curatorial and Beyond Objecthood: The Exhibition as a Critical Form since 1968, both published by The MIT Press.
