Maria Nicanor

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]

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]