This website is an incomplete archive of projects by Beatrice Leanza.
A cultural strategist, museum director and critic, Beatrice has grown into a reference figure in the international design and arts fields thank to her unique insight in the Chinese creative scene and Asian regions, and a critical practice founded on social engagement, educational empowerment and place making applied to institutional and cultural agency. She was based in Beijing for 17 years.
She has served as executive director of maat – the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Lisbon, Portugal), creative director of Beijing Design Week, director of mudac – Museum of Design and Applied Arts (Lausanne, Switzerland), and has curated, initiated and managed a variety of projects and events internationally, among which the research programs Across Chinese Cities, presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale at three consecutive editions from 2014 to 2018, and Visual Natures – The Culture and Politics of Environmentalism in the 20th and 21st Centuries developed at maat (2020-2022). She has founded two creative consulting companies (BAO Atelier which closed in 2011 and B/Side Design) working with international stakeholders from the public, private and corporate sectors with an international experience stretching from Asia to Europe. She is the co-founder of The Global School, China’s first independent institute dedicated to design and creative research.
She lectures regularly at international events and institutions and has contributed to a variety of specialized publications and catalogues. Articles and interviews about her and her projects have appeared on Artforum, Abitare, CNN Style, Domus, Dezeen, Disegno, Frieze, Frame, Flash Art International, Metropolis, Monocle, The Architect Newspaper, The Art Newspaper, T Magazine/The New York Times, The Guardian, IDEAT, Liberation/NEXT, The Good Life, Il Sole 24 ore, Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Vogue Italia, among many others.
Beatrice is a member of the international advisory board of Design Trust (Hong Kong) and is a European Young Leader (2018 – present), a think tank spearheaded by the Friends of Europe Foundation in Brussel.