JAMES TOIA IS DIRECTOR OF LAFAYETTE'S RICHARD A. and RISSA W. GROSSMAN GALLERY and the COMMUNITY BASED TEACHING PROGRAM at the Williams Visual Arts Building. Programming includes at least six formal exhibitions per year in the Grossman Gallery and art classes for area high school students. An open-studio drawing sessions for community members meets every Thursday evening from 7:00-10:00 PM. All programming at the WVAB is free.

Toia has taught sculpture and painting courses at Lafayette since 1997. He has also taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University, County College of Morris, Randolph, NJ where he also served as gallery director, and in the School of Visual Arts Masters program, NYC. Throughout the last 10 years he has worked extensively with his native New Jersey education system, in both middle schools and high school visiting artist programs.

Toia is represented by the Kim Foster Gallery, 529 West 20th St., New York City. He has mounted 15 solo exhibitions throughout the United States, and his work has appeared in more than 70 group shows in the U.S. and abroad. Most recently, he represented Lafayette College along with colleagues Ed Kerns and Lew Minter in the exhibition ”The Mind of Nature: Structure and Process” an exhibition and residency at Taipei Artist Village, an international artists residency center in Taipei, Taiwan. Their work was also featured at National Chengchi University and Cultural Center in the exhibition “Digitized”.  His work is included in many collections, including those of AT&T and the Dallas Museum of Art. He has received numerous grants and awards including a 2001 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Sculpture Fellowship and a 1996 Geraldine Dodge Foundation Arts Grant.