Phillip Bahar

At Johns Hopkins, Phillip Bahar serves as a lecturer in the MA In Museum Studies program where he draws on more than three decades of leadership in museums, performing arts, and humanities institutions. As director of the Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, he leads a team charged with inspiring curiosity, creating community, and engaging with the critical social, civic, and artistic issues of our time. The museum is a free, contemporary art museum, with a distinctive historic collection, housed in Pritzker prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid’s first U.S. building. The museum serves both MSU’s land grant campus and the mid-Michigan region – the only art museum within a 70-mile radius providing significant arts training and direct education programs in community schools.

Formerly, Bahar served as president and executive director of Chicago Humanities, which hosts 100+ conversations and performances annually and features the most compelling contemporary authors, artists, policymakers, and thinkers. Under his leadership, the organization expanded its presence across Chicago, deepened university and institutional partnerships, doubled attendance, and tripled its endowment. Programs during his tenure featured artists such as Marina Abramović, Hebru Brantley, Theaster Gates, Miranda July, Sally Mann, Patti Smith, and Ai Weiwei, alongside initiatives highlighting Chicago artists and issues.

He also served as chief of operations and administration at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN and has held leadership roles with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Performing Arts Chicago, and the Kitchen Center for the Arts in New York City.

Bahar co-founded the Art Museum Marketing Association, has served on advisory and accreditation committees with the American Association of Museums, as well as on the Board of Arts Alliance Illinois. He holds an MA in Arts Management from Columbia University and a BA in Art History from Brandeis University.