The Symbiotic Relationship Between Artist, Curator, and Art Educator
Contemporary art has evolved from a singular act of creation into a complex ecosystem encompassing production, curation, education, and the market. Within this system, artists (as producers), curators (as mediators), and art educators (as transmitters) form a symbiotic relationship. The artist provides content, the curator constructs context, and the educator builds bridges—together shaping the direction of artistic development and public engagement.
As the core agents of artistic creation, artists observe the world through personal perspectives and express internal emotions through a diverse visual language. The UK, as one of the birthplaces of contemporary art jewellery, has developed an educational system that combines European craft traditions, avant-garde thinking, and interdisciplinary experimentation. This has fostered a distinctive academic and practical pathway—from traditional metalwork to conceptual jewellery—nurturing generations of artists and designers who have redefined industry conventions.
Yanan He, a jewellery artist trained at the Glasgow School of Art, considers her most significant takeaway from the programme to be its emphasis on methodology—focusing on the process, thinking, and conceptual development behind each project. Under the mentorship of Andrew Lamb and Jonathan Boyd, her practice has grown to emphasize craftsmanship and natural motifs, while also positioning jewellery as a vessel for social commentary. She integrates critical thinking into her work, continuously pushing the boundaries between jewellery and material.
At the 2025 edition of London Craft Week, Yanan presented two refined pieces inspired by traditional Chinese architectural patterns—fish scale tiles and curved roof shingles. These designs translate the complex structure of historical architecture into a simplified visual language, subtly reflecting the restrained elegance of traditional Chinese aesthetics.
Yanan's Work Exhibited at London Craft Week 2025
Artists often observe the dynamics of the art world through their own perspectives. Yanan He continues to explore elements drawn from culture, nature, and the raw beauty of the organic world. She frequently visits museums and galleries across the globe, and in the process of seeking creative inspiration, she developed a growing interest in exhibition design and curatorial strategies targeted at children.
She was particularly intrigued by several children’s museum initiatives: the "Children’s Jewellery Lab" at CODA Museum in the Netherlands, which visualizes emotion through temperature-sensitive rings; the British Museum’s "Object Journeys" project, which allows children to curate their own “mini exhibitions” using replica kits that include fragments of Chinese porcelain and African masks; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s tactile sketching course “Seeing Through Drawing,” designed for visually impaired children and supported by 3D-printed reproductions of classic artworks. These encounters not only sparked new creative inspiration for Yanan but also deepened her curiosity about children’s psychology and modes of thinking. As an artist, she came to believe that creativity should be as imaginative and unconstrained as a child’s thoughts, which eventually led her to engage deeply with children’s art education.
A pivotal moment came during a visit to Freelands Foundation in London. At the entrance of the exhibition, the bold statement “Artists should teach” left a lasting impression. This simple phrase crystallized her belief in merging the identities of artist and educator. As art education continues to evolve, Yanan believes artists are uniquely positioned to serve as both transmitters and innovators of artistic knowledge—cultivating future talents through creative theory, critical thinking, and aesthetic awareness. Picasso once said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” This perspective inspired Yanan to launch Flying Bee, a children’s art education initiative, in 2019. Framed as a “wandering art school,” the project invites children to explore humanities and the arts through travel-based aesthetic experiences.
Through Flying Bee, Yanan leads children in exploring topics of aesthetics and cultural heritage by visiting museums, galleries, and historic sites both in China and abroad. These experiences offer space for inquiry, appreciation, and hands-on engagement—enriching not only the children’s understanding but also providing a deeper cultural foundation for Yanan’s own creative work.
Their journeys have spanned countries and regions: from learning traditional chasing techniques in a silver workshop in Xinhua Village, Yunnan, to studying the craftsmanship and contemporary interpretations of porcelain art in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi; and to sparking an appreciation for Western aesthetics through museum visits in the UK. By placing Chinese traditional aesthetics in dialogue with Western art history, Yanan introduces children—and through them, broader audiences—to a cross-cultural understanding of what “art” means on a global scale.
Led a group of children aged 10–12 to learn traditional silver chasing techniques in Xinhua Village, Yunnan, in 2024.
Curators are often seen as the “directors” of the art world. With sharp artistic insight and strategic planning skills, they bring together dispersed works and reframe them through curatorial themes and spatial design—giving new layers of meaning and value to the pieces.
In 2023, Yanan He curated a public children’s art exhibition themed around Ocean Art, combining her roles as educator and curator. The exhibition took an educational perspective, encouraging environmental awareness and ocean protection through art. More than 200 young artists participated, expressing their creativity using a wide range of materials while reflecting on environmental issues.
Drawing from the process-based art methods she learned at the Glasgow School of Art, Yanan introduced these concepts to the children—giving them the freedom to first imagine what they wanted to present and then create the work. For her, this exhibition became more than an event; it was a platform for artistic thinking and dialogue from a child’s perspective.
This experience marked a shift in her role—from exhibition organizer to a producer of meaning—transforming the exhibition into a “multi-functional energy field” where art, culture, and education intersect. In doing so, Yanan helped shape a dynamic and positive ecosystem for children’s art and education.
Children aged 8 to 9 creating ceramic jewellery for the Ocean Art themed exhibition, 2023.
At the societal level, the close connection between artists, curators, and art educators can generate a broader cultural impact. In 2025, Yanan He led the Flying Bee: Yungang Grottoes parent-child field study and educational project, in collaboration with Shanghai University. This initiative was part of the university’s integrated academic project, Silk Road Tales: The Past and Present of Chinese Grottoes, serving as a practice-based sub-topic under the framework of academia-industry cooperation.
With academic support from Shanghai University, Yanan organised a joint team of university students and the Flying Bee project to develop a customised educational curriculum. Their aim was to translate academic research into accessible content for children. She also guided five children, in the role of “young artists,” to create a series of prints based on the Buddhist figures at the Yungang Grottoes, a significant cultural heritage site in Shanxi Province.
As a culmination of the project, Yanan collaborated with faculty from the School of Fine Arts and the School of Cultural and Information Management at Shanghai University to curate a series of seminars and exhibitions. These showcased the curriculum design, travel manuals, and children’s parent-child painting outcomes centred on Buddhist iconography. The resulting exhibition, titled Adornment in Words: Contemporary Craft Invitational Exhibition, was jointly hosted by the National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Centre for Public Art and Technology, the School of Cultural Heritage and Information Management, and the Basic Science Research Institute for Cultural Heritage Protection at Shanghai University. It was presented at Rong Art Centre in Shanghai and garnered significant public attention, including coverage from China Daily.
This collaboration not only brought wider public attention to cultural heritage issues but also used the emotional power of art to raise awareness of heritage preservation. More importantly, it embedded the aesthetic and cultural value of tangible heritage into children’s formative experiences.
"Adornment in Words: Contemporary Craft Invitational Exhibition", 2025
As an artist, Yanan He explores cultural identity within contemporary contexts. As a curator, she focuses on the relationships between artworks, spaces, the public, and social issues. And as an educator, she draws on the artist’s cultural sensitivity and the curator’s industry insight to inspire future artists and a new generation with refined aesthetic awareness.
