Lily Yeh grew up in Taiwan and moved to the United States in 1963 to attend the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts.
14 Facts About Lily Yeh
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Lily Yeh was a professor of painting and art history at University of the Arts from 1968 until 1998.
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In 2002, Yeh pursued her work internationally, founding Barefoot Artists, Inc In addition to the United States, she has carried out projects in several other countries.
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Lily Yeh is the subject of the feature-length documentary film The Barefoot Artist directed by Glenn Holsten and Daniel Traub.
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Lily Yeh has been included in the Asian American Arts Centre's artasiamerica digital archive.
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Lily Yeh co-founded The Village of Arts and Humanities in 1989.
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In 2004, Lily Yeh left the Village of Arts and Humanities to pursue other work internationally.
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In 2005, Lily Yeh was invited as guest curator by the American Visionary Art Museum.
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Lily Yeh introduced and curated the wall-sized papercut pieces by the late Chinese folk artist Ku Shu-Lan in the exhibition Race, Class, Gender = Character at AVAM.
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In 2003, Lily Yeh founded the non-profit organization Barefoot Artists Inc Using the same concept and model used in Philadelphia, the Barefoot Artists work to train and empower local residents, organize communities, and take action to use the power of art to transform impoverished communities.
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Recently, Lily Yeh has worked on projects in ten countries including Rwanda, Kenya, Ecuador, and China.
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Lily Yeh discusses her work at the Dandelion School in Beijing, China in her book Awakening Creativity.
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Lily Yeh designed the Rugerero Genocide Memorial Monument Park in 2004 and it was built in 2005 with help from hundreds of local villagers.
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In 2013, Lily Yeh led a three-day workshop for children and adults living in An Kang public housing in a poor and neglected area to imagine and create together their re-developed community through story-sharing and art.