Godfrey Worsdale began his curatorial career in the early 1990s at the British Museum and established Cultural Instructions; an independent contemporary art space in London in 1994. He moved to Southampton City Art Gallery as Curator in 1995, and was appointed Director in 1998. In 2002 he became Founding Director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. In 2008 was appointed Director of BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and three years later launched BALTIC 39; a significant second site for the institution.

He joined the judging panels of the Zoo Art Fair in 2007 and the Paul Hamlyn Awards in 2008. He was a selector for the British Pavilion for the 54th Venice Biennale, a judge for the 2011 Turner Prize and for the 2012 Salon Prize. He is the Chairman of the UK’s Visual Art and Galleries Association, Chairman of England’s Contemporary Visual Art Network, a Patron of the Crisis Commission, a Trustee of the Northern Canon Art Collection, an honorary member of the Contemporary Art Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Laws by Northumbria University in 2012.