Finding passion in work can be a challenge for many employees because people tend to put lots of pressure on themselves to chase performance objectives. However, there are individuals like Yahan Wang that can find personal fulfilment in their jobs. While it may not be a common experience, working on projects that align with personal interests can help identify the focus, according to Wang.
"Sometimes people spend their whole life finding their passion," Wang explained, "But I was lucky enough to find mine early on. I was inspired by a project I did in one of my internships, which set me on the path of becoming an art administrator," Wang says.
Wang worked as an intern at an art consulting company based in New York City. According to Wang, art consulting was still something new to her back in 2018. She started the experience with her curiosity over the process of assisting a company or a public space that was not in the art field in finding artists and artworks.
One of the most memorable projects Wang was involved in was an art consulting project for a newly constructed hotel in Manhattan. The client was looking for artists' works that could embody the theme of their interior design and could work as decoration in the hotel. The combination of both vintage and contemporary styles in the hotel added more difficulties to Wang's start.
Wang began her artist hunting by exploring tons of artists' profiles and diving into works related to all perspectives of the project. Eventually, Wang came to a collage artist's page which contained works that integrated both ancient and modern scenes. Even though it was not an artist with millions of followers, Wang saw the potential of how this artist's creativity might perfectly fit in the needs of this project.
As a result, the client showed the biggest interest in the collage artist over the other artists in the proposal package and considered collecting the collage works with putting them as a crucial part of the decoration in the hotel. Gaining the client's appreciation for Wang's choice of artist was unexpected to her as she was still a beginner in the field of art in 2018.
The approval of the client inspired Wang to pursue a career as an art professional since she realized that she could use her acuity over visual arts to build on a career that allows her to help underrepresented artists, as well as their works, be seen and appreciated by people from all different fields. Wang now continues developing her passion for art through her professional practice as a curator, visual designer and sales coordinator, aiming to enhance art ecology through her works worldwide.
