Her interest in contemporary art began while living in Austin, during the early eighties, but intensified when she moved to New York City in 1984, affording her regular visits to East Village and Soho galleries.
While Curator at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (1999–2002), she curated fourteen solo shows, organized five thematic exhibitions and authored the book Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies[3] to accompany the exhibition, co-curated with Amy Lipton.
[5] During her 2005-2006 “Yes Brainer Tour,” she traveled via car through 38 states presenting “The Gist of Isness,” based on an essay published in X-tra[6] and delivered at the 2006 Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Portland, Oregon.
[citation needed] In addition to collaborating with Alysse Stepanian on the multi-media event scourge.org at OnetoManyThree (1999), Spaid performed “Suitably Contrite” (1998) (Socrates' The Apology & Dave Soldier soundtrack) at TwoMANYtwo.
In 2000, Jan Baum Gallery presented “Used and Amused,” which featured works by twelve artists who had used Spaid as their muse.
[10] From 1990 to 1995, Spaid’s Los Angeles gallery presented shows by artists including Michael Joaquin Grey and David Schafer.
From 2003-2012, she was a member of the Contributors Board for artUS, having written regularly for this LA art publication and its predecessor ArtText since 1997.