He briefly taught art history at San Diego Mesa College before being hired by Petersen Galleries in Beverly Hills.
In 1981, Stern curated an exhibition entitled Western Masters, displaying works by Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, William R. Leigh, and Henry Farny.
Stern served as Curator from 1978 to late 1979 and as Executive Director until Robert Petersen sold his company and closed the gallery in 1991.
Drawing from Smith's extensive collection of California Impressionist paintings, as well as from a number of specialist collectors, Stern mounted three on-site exhibitions per year.
Additionally, he initiated an ongoing series of traveling exhibitions, visiting over seventy venues throughout the U.S., including New York, Chicago, Charleston, Memphis, Tulsa, Scottsdale, Oakland, Sacramento, and many others.
[10][11][12] In 2002, the Irvine Museum organized "Masters of Light," the first and to date only exhibition of California Impressionism to tour Europe, with venues in Paris, Krakow and Madrid.
In 2011, he and his wife Linda Weingarten Stern were honored with the Samuel Gendel Community Service Award, presented by the American Jewish Committee of Orange County.