Maria Nicanor, an architecture and design curator and historian, has been announced as the new director of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. She will begin her role on March 21.
Nicanor, executive director of the Rice Design Alliance (RDA) at Rice University’s School of Architecture in Houston, will oversee 86 employees, an annual budget of more than $15m and a collection of around 215,000 objects.
She will also lead the museum’s innovative exhibition programming. Nicanor has been executive director of RDA since 2017, overseeing the development of content and programming.
“Maria has an impressive passion for design and a thorough understanding of the impact it has on our shared future,” said Lonnie Bunch, Secretary of the Smithsonian. “Her vision and leadership will help Cooper Hewitt reach even more audiences across the nation and around the world.”
Maria Nicanor to oversee design museum
Before joining RDA, Nicanor spent more than a decade working at art museums and foundations across the globe. She was a curator at the design, architecture and digital department of the V&A between 2013 and 2016.
“Joining the Smithsonian family and building upon Cooper Hewitt’s past successes provides the opportunity to bring together the three most important pillars of my career: design and architecture, public service and museum work,” she said.
“We can’t ignore that it’s a particularly complicated time for museums in general right now. Not just what we do, but how we do it, for whom and with whom, are essential questions for design museums to consider.”
Nicanor also held several positions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City between 2005 and 2013. She succeeds Caroline Baumann, who served as the director of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum from 2013 to 2020.
The Smithsonian Institution has also named Jorge Zamanillo, executive director and CEO of HistoryMiami Museum, as the founding director of the upcoming National Museum of the American Latino.
Images: Smithsonian
