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Kaylee Spencer

Director

Professor, Art Education

Museum of Fine Arts

 

Kaylee Spencer is the Director of the Museum of Fine Arts and Professor in the Department of Art Education. Before arriving at FSU in 2024, she was a Professor of Art History at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls. With her passion for working collaboratively across departments, units, and disciplines, Spencer held various administrative roles including serving as the Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Chair to the Art Department, the Director of the University’s Art Gallery, and other leadership roles. She has also led planning efforts for the Museo Modelo (slated to open in 2028), a non-profit art museum in Los Angeles committed to the promotion and exhibition of Latin American Art.

Spencer’s curatorial vision is deeply rooted in a profound engagement with both contemporary and historical art practices. She strives to champion underrepresented voices and explore the intersections of culture, identity, and artistic expression. By working with a diverse array of artworks and artists, she seeks to create exhibitions that address the salient issues of our time but also illuminate how the artistic traditions of the past resonate with and inform our understanding of our world today. 

Along with curatorial endeavors, Spencer engages in art historical research focusing on the art of the Americas from the past and present. Her interdisciplinary work bridges art historical analysis, archaeological evidence, epigraphic study, and contemporary art theory to uncover insights into the artistic and cultural practices of pre-Columbian and colonial societies. Her fieldwork includes extensive documentation and analysis of ancient Maya monuments in Mexico, with a particular focus on space and spatial analysis in the Northern Lowlands. Spencer’s scholarly contributions have been recognized through her publications and presentations. She is the co-editor (with Linnea Wren, Cynthia Kristen-Graham and Travis Nygard) of Landscapes of the Itza: Archaeology and Art History of Chichen Itza and Neighboring Sites (University Press of Florida, 2017) and (with Maline D. Werness-Rude) Maya Art, Architecture and Activity: Space and Spatiality (University of New Mexico Press, 2015). Additionally, she has co-authored journal articles and book chapters that delve into various aspects of ancient Maya art and architecture.

Contact and Files

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin, 2007
  • Master of Arts, University of California, Riverside, 2000
  • Bachelor of Arts, Gustavus Adolphus College, 1998

Selected Publications

  • Under contract, Wren, L., C. Kristan-Graham, T. Nygard, and K. Spencer (eds.). Landscapes of the Itza: Archaeology and Art History of Chichen Itza and Neighboring Sites. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
  • Under contract, Wren, L., K. Spencer, and T. Nygard. To Face or to Flee from the Foe: Women in Warfare at Chichen Itza. In Landscapes of the Itza: Archaeology and Art, eds. L. Wren, C. Kristan-Graham, T. Nygard, and K. Spencer. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
  • 2015, Wren, L., T. Nygard, and K. Spencer. Establishing and Translating Maya Spaces at Tonina and Ocosingo: How Indigenous Portraits were Moved, Mutilated, and Made Christian in New Spain. In Memory Traces: Analyzing Sacred Space at Five Mesoamerican Sites, eds. C. Kristan-Graham and L. Amrhein. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
  • 2015, Werness-Rude, M., and K. Spencer (eds.) Maya Art, Architecture and Activity: Space and Spatiality. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
  • 2015, Spencer, K. Locating Palenque’s Captive Portraits: Space, Spectatorship, and Identity in Classic Maya Art, pp. 229 – 270. In Maya Art, Architecture and Activity: Space and Spatiality, eds. M. Werness-Rude and K. Spencer. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Selected Lectures

  • 2017  K. Spencer and M. Werness-Rude, “Maya Architecture in the Northern Lowlands,” Vancouver, B.C. The Annual Conference for the Society of American Archaeology (SAA) Mar. 31, 2017.
  • 2016, Activating Architecture: Performance and Experience in the Ancient Maya World, Presented at the Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI, Mar. 9, 2016.
  • 2016,M. Werness-Rude and K. Spencer, Architectural Framing in the Northern Maya Lowlands, Presented at the Maya Meetings, Austin Texas. Jan. 16.
  • 2015,K. Spencer, Linnea Wren, and Travis Nygard, The Portraits of Tonina and Ocosingo: How Images of Maya Monarchs were Moved to Make Meanings in New Spain, Midwest Art History Society 42nd Annual Meeting. St. Paul, MN, Mar. 26-28.
  • 2014,Locating Palenque’s Captive Portraits: Space, Spectatorship, and Identity in Classic Maya, A lecture delivered at the Institute of Fine Arts – Veracruz, in Xalapa, Mexico, Oct., 2014.