From there, he became curator of collections at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (1982-1988), where among other projects, he published Murals from a Great Canadian Train (1986), organized a show and book of Maria Chapdelaine: Illustrations by Clarence Gagnon, and initiated a David Milne exhibition (completed at the VAG in 1991 along with his book David Milne (Douglas & Mcintyre Ltd and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection).
Thom's highlights among his 100 exhibitions and catalogues and books while at the VAG include, among many others, the VAG's 1993 Tom Thomson; 1995 Andy Warhol: Images; 2000 Art BC: Masterworks from British Columbia (an independent publication done while at the VAG); its 2002 retrospective of E. J. Hughes; a 2005 retrospective of Takao Tanabe, a collaboration between the VAG and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria that later toured the country, a 2009 Challenging Traditions, Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast, organized for the McMichael Canadian Art Collection which toured the country; the 2010 Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man, organized for the VAG in conjunction with The Royal Collection;[2] and Gordon Smith: Don't Look Back (2014) (an independent book).
[2] His catalogues and books have been praised as using language to describe the works that is free of art speak.
[5] He brought into the collection or increasing the representation of such artists as John Vanderpant, Beatrice Lennie, Jock Macdonald and Lilias Farley,[6] as well as First Nations art, both historical and contemporary.
[8] He also published Clarence Gagnon: The Maria Chapdelaine Illustrations (Pomegranate & McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2020).