Maria Nicanor

Maria Nicanor is a Spanish-American museum curator specializing in design and history of architecture. She has held significant positions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Guggenheim, and the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum.

Early life and education

Nicanor was born in Barcelona. Her father is a filmmaker; her mother is a lawyer specializing in intellectual property in the arts.[1] Nicanor received a bachelor's degree from the Autonomous University of Madrid, with a major in the theory and history of architecture. She also studied at the Sorbonne University and completed a master's degree in museum studies at New York University.[2][1]

Career

She was the first director of the Norman Foster Foundation in Madrid.[3] She was the architecture and design curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.[4]

Nicanor had various roles at the Guggenheim Museum in New York from 2003 and 2013[1] including a role as the curator of architecture and design.[5] She was the leader of the team for the traveling laboratory called the BMW Guggenheim Lab.[1]

She became the executive director of the Rice Design Alliance at the Rice University School of Architecture in 2017.[5]

References

1. Porgrebin, Robin (February 8, 2022). "Cooper Hewitt Director Aims to Bring Context". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
2. "Maria Nicanor Named Director of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum". Cooper Hewitt. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
3. West, Allyn (November 19, 2017). "Gray Matters: 'We all have an opinion about the city' A conversation with the new chief of the Rice Design Alliance, Maria Nicanor". Houston Chronicle. p. G002.
4. Seward, Aaron (January 21, 2021). "Q&A with Maria Nicanor". Texas Architect Magazine. ISSN 0040-4179. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
5. "Rice Architecture appoints Maria Nicanor as executive director of the Rice Design Alliance". US Official News. November 9, 2017.