[1] She has frequently served as a guest curator, lectured internationally and published extensively, and has received many public appointments.
[2][3] The subject of her dissertation was the Afro-Cuban Chinese Surrealist artist Wifredo Lam and the International Avant-Garde, 1923–1992, which was published by the University of Texas Press in 2002.
"[6] She participated in the organization of several exhibitions including Ellsworth Kelly (1979), John Marin: Selected Works from the Museum's Collection (1981), Henry Moore: 60 Years of His Art (1983), and Charles Burchfield (1984).
In 1997, Dr. Sims curated the exhibition Richard Pousette-Dart, 1916–1992 and coordinated Francesco Clemente: Indian Watercolors organized by the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
[citation needed] From 2000 to 2007, Sims was executive director, then president, of the Studio Museum in Harlem and served as adjunct curator for the permanent collection.
[citation needed] That same year she co-curated Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery at the New York Historical Society.
At MAD, Sims co-curated "Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary" (2008) and "Dead or Alive: Artists Respond to Nature" (2010).
She also conceived and co-curated "The Global Africa Project" (2010–11) and "Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art, Craft and Design" which opened in March 2013.
In 2014, she curated the exhibitions "Maryland to Murano: Neckpieces and Sculptures by Joyce J. Scott," and "New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America.