About the Exhibition

Barbie to Anna Karenina: The Cinematic Worlds of Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer is an immersive and experiential look at the works of one of the most distinctive production design teams working today. Focusing on their artistic vision and range, the exhibition highlights Greenwood and Spencer’s process and shows how they develop the overall look and visual concept of a movie and collaborate to create unique environments and settings that convey time, place, and character. Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the impact of production designers and set decorators on a film and will leave with a greater understanding of their work.

About Greenwood and Spencer

Sarah Greenwood is an Academy Award-nominated Production Designer. Born in the UK, she studied Theatre Design and worked in theater before moving to television at the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in the mid-1980s. Katie Spencer is an Academy Award-nominated Set Decorator. Born in the UK, she studied Stage Management and worked in theater for several years before joining the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and re-training as a production buyer and then set decorator.

The duo met while working at the BBC, and they have consistently worked together since then. The pair is known for their long-standing collaboration with director Joe Wright. Together, the trio has worked on Pride and Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Anna Karenina (2012), Darkest Hour (2017)–all of which received Academy Award nominations for Production Design for Greenwood and Spencer– as well as Hanna (2011) and Cyrano (2021). Other notable projects include director Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes (2009) (for which they received another Oscar nomination) and its sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). Beauty and the Beast (2017), directed by Bill Condon, gave them the opportunity to create not only fantastical fairytale locations, but also living characters in the form of the enchanted household objects who inhabit the Beast’s castle. The film brought them another Oscar nomination. Greenwood and Spencer received their eighth Academy Award nomination for their creation of the pink-hued universe of writer-director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023).

Barbie to Anna Karenina: The Cinematic Worlds of Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer is curated by Exhibitions Curator Michelle Puetz with the support of Curatorial Assistants Simran Bhalla and Alexandra James Salichs and former Curatorial Assistant Manouchka Labouba.