Kevin W. Tucker is the High Museum of Art’s Chief Curator. With more than two decades of curatorial and museum leadership experience, he directs the High’s curatorial program and oversees interpretation, research, and development of the collections. In addition, he works with the executive staff and across curatorial departments to develop plans for permanent collection installations and to organize an ambitious schedule of special exhibitions.
Prior to joining the High in 2017, Tucker served as the founding director of the forthcoming Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, planning the design and organization of a 137,000-square-foot facility currently under development in St. Petersburg, Fla. From 2003 to 2015, Tucker served as the Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA). During his tenure, Tucker led numerous national and international collaborations to develop the museum’s overall program of modern and contemporary design, realizing a series of major acquisitions, reinstallations, and exhibitions including Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design (2005), Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement (2010), and Modern Opulence in Vienna: The Wittgenstein Vitrine (2015).
Prior to joining the DMA, Tucker served as chief curator and deputy director of the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, S.C., (CMA) from 2002 to 2003, where he had previously been the curator of decorative arts. In addition, he served as the curator of decorative arts and Owens-Thomas House at the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Ga.
Tucker earned a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of South Carolina and was the recipient of a 2007 Winterthur Research Fellowship. He has served on committees for various regional and national professional organizations, including the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC), the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and the Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC).