Muxi Bai（Lucas Bai）
My interest in art history goes hand in hand with my curiosity about history and the humanities. At the heart of it all is a single question: how do images, objects, and ideas move between cultures, change shape, and come to mean something new?
To begin answering this, I traveled to museums, galleries, and heritage sites across Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. I also spent time doing fieldwork with the Hmong community in China. These experiences showed me that you cannot truly understand a work of art without knowing the society and history it came from.
I wanted to share what I learned, so I curated two exhibitions: one on Burmese Buddhist sculpture, presented bilingually online, and another on Suzhou brick carving from the late Qing dynasty, which looked at how architectural decoration reflected social life in the Jiangnan region. Putting these together taught me that curating is itself a way of doing art history.
Academically, I wrote two long research papers—one for the TCR program, a 13,232-word project that took me half a year, and another for Pioneer, a 9,500-word study on spatial logic in traditional East Asian architecture. I have also written seven shorter essays on art history, visual culture, and material culture. I received an award in the John Locke Essay Competition for a history paper. Awarded the Bronze Medal in the Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest. All of this writing gave me a real feel for the discipline and patience that art history demands.
Beyond writing, I work with my hands. I make ceramics and sculpture, and I have explored graphic design. My ceramic artwork "Longmen Grottoes No. 3" won the First Prize in the High School Division of the 5th "Taoxichuan Cup" China Youth Ceramic Works Exhibition—an honor shared by only seven young artists nationwide, and I was an independent creator. I also published an article in Chinese Ceramic Artists magazine on ceramic exchange between China and Japan. These hands-on experiences sharpened my sensitivity to materials and images, and reminded me that art history cannot live only in books—it has to connect with the physical world.
I started taking international curricula back in 10th grade, and unlike many fellow Chinese students who lean toward STEM subjects, I have always been utterly passionate about the humanities. Since many of the courses I was eager to dive into were not offered at my school, over the past two years, on top of keeping up with all my regular school coursework, I self-studied AP European History, AP World History, AP United States History, AP Comparative Government and Politics, and AP Art History, and I am absolutely thrilled to have earned a perfect score of 5 across 13 AP exams in total. I truly love this fulfilling, enriching state of learning, and I sincerely hope I can keep up this pace of immersive, high-density knowledge accumulation throughout my college journey and beyond.I look forward to studying art history in college, especially at the crossroads of cross-cultural art history, material culture, and curatorial practice. I hope to deepen my path through more structured academic training.
Interdisciplinary Focus in Academics:
Dedicated to history of art and cross-cultural studies in general
Academic Excellence:
Admitted to my (current) high school as the first-ranking applicant; recipient of the highest academic honors at my school for everyears.
Leadership & Impact:
1.Founder and President of the Social Sciences Association
2.Team Leader for the Myanmar Volunteer Teaching Program
3.Elected College Chair, awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award
Myanmar Online Teaching Mission ：Coordinated a team of 18 peers to deliver two-hour weekly online sessions—comprising one hour of Mathematics and one hour of English—to students in Myanmar Additionally, I designed and instructed an Art History module, conducting all lessons entirely in English
Comparative Visual Culture Studies & Fieldwork:
I have traveled to Asia (China, Japan), Europe (the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain), North America (the United States, Canada), and Oceania (Australia), where I conducted systematic studies of major art museums, galleries, exhibition halls, and cultural heritage sites. In addition, I carried out dedicated fieldwork on the culture of the Hmong people in China.
Independent Curatorial Project:
Conceived, curated, and launched two public exhibitions
Exhibition link: https://metastepscom/viewer/587ba7da-d8ad-4fe2-8635-1f3b65bc9f35
2.Material Evidence: Su‑style Brick Carvings Art Exhibition in the Mid‑to‑Late Qing Dynasty
Exhibition link: https://metastepscom/viewer/5e4568ce-0130-40e8-a703-f45a9967afe4
Personal Interests:
Ceramic Arts: Specializing in studio pottery and sculptural forms
Design: Creating visual identities (posters/web interfaces) for self-initiated projects