This website is an incomplete archive of projects by Beatrice Leanza.
A cultural strategist, museum director and critic, Beatrice is an Asian art historian by training (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice) who 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 her visionary institutional leadership founded on participatory engagement, trandsdisciplinary experimentation and educational empowerment, addressing pressing social and ecological concerns.
She was based in Beijing for 17 years wher she started her career at CAAW (China Art Archives and Warehouse) – the historical alternative art space created in Beijing by artist Ai Weiwei. She is the co-founder of The Global School, China’s first independent institute dedicated to design and creative research, and served as creative director of Beijing Design Week, during which she was the founding director of Baitasi Remade, the urban regeneration program for Baitasi historic hutong district.
She has acted as executive director of maat – the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Lisbon, Portugal) and director of mudac – Museum of Design and Applied Arts (Lausanne, Switzerland).
She 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, Visual Natures – The Culture and Politics of Environmentalism in the 20th and 21st Centuries developed at maat during her directorship (2020-2022), and the Saudi Arabia Pavilion (The Um Slaim School – An Architecture of Connection) at the 2025 Biennale Architettura, Venice.
She has founded two creative consulting companies (BAO Atelier 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 lectures regularly at international events and institutions and has contributed to a variety of specialized publications, including books published by Park Books, Mousse Publishing, Lars Muller Publishers, Phaidon, Walther Koenig Books and Routledge. Articles and interviews about her and her projects have appeared on Artforum, Abitare*, CNN Style*, Domus, Dezeen, Designboom, Disegno*, Frieze*, Frame, Flash Art International*, Financial Times, Blueprint Magazine, Metropolis, Monocle, The Guardian, The New York Times/T Magazine, The Architect Newspaper, The Art Newspaper, IDEAT, Liberation/NEXT, The Good Life, Il Sole 24 ore, Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Vogue Italy, Wallpaper, Elle Decor IT, among many others including the Chinese press. *(titles she has also contributed to)
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.
Her publication The New Design Museum – Co.creating the Present, Prototyping the Future (Park Books, 2025) was reviewed in the Financial Times among the best architecture and design books of 2025.