Museum of National Taipei University of Education

1Contents

Contents

What is OISTAT? 2

Symposium Program 3

Meet Keynote Speakers 5

Meet the Panelists 11

Snapshots of Culture Scenes Taiwan

Micro-theatre: About its space, and some thoughts on the creative process 14

The Next Step for the Ministry of Culture 17

Organized by

Supported by

Sponsors

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Partners

OISTAT- International Organisation of

Scenographers, Theatre Architects and

Technicians

Headquarters Team

Executive Director | Kathy HongManager | Wan-Jung WeiProject Manager | Edie ChenSecretary | Lulu Yeh, Lucy WangKey Visual Design | GodkidllaLayout Design | Yichi HongChinese Calligraphy (Badges) | Chong-ci Wang Interns | Wei-ping Chen, Hung-wei Tseng

2 What is OISTAT?

Founded in 1968, OISTAT-International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians is a cooperative, global and non-governmental organization. It has members in 53 countries around the world. Since 2006, the Headquarters relocated to Taipei, Taiwan.

isWhatOISTAT?

OISTAT is a global network of theatre makers celebrating

design & technology in live performance

Connecting global theatre professionals through international meetings and events

The essential activities of OISTAT are undertaken by six commissions: Architecture, Education, Research, Performance Design, Publication & Communication, and Technology. Annual meetings, presentations, and workshops are held to invite international theatre practitioners, researchers and educators as well as students and professionals to join, share, and network. Main international projects such as World Stage Design, Scenofest, Theatre Architecture Competition, and Technical Invention

Prize, enable the ongoing exchange of knowledge through sharing innovation, encouraging experimentation, and promoting international collaboration in the development of live performance and its technologies and spaces.

OISTAT has a wide range of publ icat ions , inc luding World Scenography , Digital Theatre Words, New Theatre Words and Understanding OISTAT: Network of Global Theatre Professionals. ◢

www.oistat.org

3Symposium Program

October 5th, 2014 (Sunday)Cultural Landmark & Its Communities

Time Program

09:00-09:20 Registration

Arts Back to Its People

09:30-10:10 Keynote Speech：Art Centre Always Open- 24hr TheatreSpeaker: Austin Wang (TW) / Director of Taipei Performing Arts Center

10:15-11:00 Keynote Speech: Citizen Involvement in Arts StrategySpeaker: Jane Crawley (AU) / Manager of Arts & Culture, City of Melbourne

11:00-11:10 Break

11:10-12:00 Panel Discussion: How Much Power is Power?Moderator: Kathy Hong (TW) / Executive Director of OISTAT

Panelists: Jane Crawley (AU) / Manager of Arts & Culture, City of Melbourne

Austin Wang (TW) / Director of Taipei Performing Arts Center

Rong-Yu Wang (TW) / Founder and Artistic Director of Golden Bough Theatre

Wuming Chen (TW) / Executive Officer of Vocal Asia

12:00-13:30 Lunch

Advocating the Arts

13:30-14:15 Keynote Speech: Culture in a Bigger BoxSpeaker: Andrew Taylor (US) / Associate Professor of Arts Management, American

University

14:15-15:00 Keynote Speech: Digital Theatre as Unique Form of Live TheatreSpeaker: Tom Shaw (UK) / Business Director & Executive Producer of Digital Theatre

15:00-15:15 Break

15:15-16:30 Panel Discussion: Cultivating AdvocacyModerator: Liting Liu (TW) / Associate Executive Director of Taipei Arts Festivals

Panelists: Andrew Taylor (US) / Associate Professor of Arts Management, American

University

Tom Shaw (UK) / Business Director & Executive Producer of Digital Theatre

Jennifer Lee (TW) / Project Manager of Taipei Performing Arts Center

Tung-Yen Chou (TW) / Founder and Director of Very Mainstream Studio

Symposium Program

4 Symposium Program

October 6th, 2014 (Monday)Cultural Landmark & Its Communities

Time Program

09:10-09:30 Registration

Roundtable: The Approaches and Interactions with Communities

09:30-11:10 Moderator: Wan-Jung Wei (TW) / Manager of OISTAT HeadquartersParticipants: － Jane Crawley (AU) / Manager of Arts & Culture, City of Melbourne － Jeff Khan (AU) / Artistic Director of Performance Space － Jan K. Rolník (CZ) / Curator of SIGNAL | Prague Light Festival － Tom Shaw (UK) / Business Director & Executive Producer of Digital Theatre － Andrew Taylor (US) / Associate Professor of Arts Management, American University －Wuming Chen (TW) / Executive Officer of Vocal Asia － Pen Ting Huang (TW) / Deputy Manager of Planning and Marketing Department at the

National Theater & Concert Hall, National Performing Arts Center － Shao Yuan Chen (TW) / Programmer of Kaohsiung Spring Art Festival & Artistic Director of

Kaohsiung Experimental Theatre － Hsintung Liao (TW) / Planning Assistant of Chiayi Performing Arts Center － Pin Shiu Chen (TW) / Archiving Director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan－ River Lin (TW) / Independent Curator

11:10-11:20 Break

11:20-12:00 World Scenography 1990-2005Editors Eric Fielding (US) and Peter McKinnon (CA) on international collaborative publication World Scenography

12:00-13:30 Lunch

Creative Communities

13:30-14:15 Keynote Speech: Light, Space, People, CitySpeaker: Jan K. Rolník (CZ) / Curator of SIGNAL | Prague Light Festival

14:15-14:30 Break

14:30-15:15 Keynote Speech: Creative Spaces Unconfined by WallsSpeaker: Jeff Khan (AU) / Artistic Director of Performance Space

15:20-16:10 Panel Discussion: Curating and Public ConnectionModerator: Kathy Hong (TW) / Executive Director of OISTATPanelists: － Jan K. Rolník (CZ) / Curator of SIGNAL | Prague Light Festival － Jeff Khan (AU) / Artistic Director of Performance Space － Pei-Yu Shih (TW) / Artistic Director &Producer of Close to YOU International Puppet Festival－ Grace Cheng (HK) / Director of Community Art Network and Art in Hospital

5

Set Designer

Chair of OISTAT Publication & Communication Commission

Director of Taipei Performing Arts Center

Meet Keynote Speakers

Austin Wang

An internationally renowned set designer from Taiwan, Austin Wang has been designing set and lighting for many well-known Taiwanese performing arts productions of different genres, including opera, Chinese opera, modern dance, drama and events. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described his design as “creates a magical room that unfolds a poetry of its own”.

In 2004, Wang was awarded the Belvedere International Achievement Award in Poland. In 2014, he was awarded the 18th National Award for Arts, the highest honor for cultural dedicators in Taiwan.

Wang’s past positions included Jury for Prague Quadrennial 2007, the President of Taiwan Association of Theatre Technology, set designer for the opening and closing ceremony of 2009 Deaflympic (Taipei) and technical and stage manager at the National Theatre in Taipei. He highly values theatre education and has been teaching design in universities in Taiwan.

Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC)

Scheduled to open in 2016, Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC) sits on the belt of the most popular tourist route including the famous Shihlin Night Market, National Palace Museum, National Taiwan Science Education Center and Digital Arts Center. The dynamic and diverse neighborhood makes TPAC one of the most anticipated cultural landmarks in Taipei.

The architecture of TPAC is designed by OMA, led by renowned architects Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren. TPAC includes three spaces, one of 1500 seats and two of 800 capacity, which can function autonomously or allow flexibility in combining into an innovative super theatre. TPAC’s Public Loop is designed as a high-walk trajectory through the spaces to enable general public in “walking” through the theatres aside from attending performances below.

MeetKeynoteSpeakers

6 Meet Keynote Speakers

Manager of Arts & Culture, City of Melbourne

Jane Crawley

Jane Crawley is the Manager of the City of Melbourne’s Arts and Culture portfolio, a position she has held since 2010. As Manager, Crawley’s leadership and strategic approach has positioned the City of Melbourne as a valued contributor to a thriving and growing creative metropolis. She currently oversees a portfolio comprising triennial and annual arts funding programs, a diverse range of producing programs, and the management, interpretation and programming of the City’s cultural facilities and assets.

The recently published City of Melbourne Arts Strategy 2014 – 17 is a testament to the civic and collaborative approach Crawley has enabled, setting a framework that places Melbourne as a productive and inspiring environment for artists and audiences, of all backgrounds and interests. Her work background spans the community sector, local government, arts organisations and community media. She has also published numerous articles relating to arts and society.

MeetKeynoteSpeakers

7Meet Keynote Speakers

Associate Professor of Arts Management, American University

E. Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor is an Associate Professor of Arts Management at American University, where he teaches graduate coursework in the Arts Management Program, and studies organizational structure, strategy, and management practice in arts and culture. Prior to his move to American University, he directed the Bolz Center for Arts Administration, an MBA degree program and learning center in the Wisconsin School of Business, for more than a decade.

An author, lecturer, and researcher on a broad range of arts management issues, Taylor has also served as a consultant to arts organizations and cultural initiatives throughout the U.S. and Canada, including the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), American Ballet Theatre, Create Austin, Theatre Communications Group, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, among others. He helped develop the budget pro forma and operating plan for the $205-million Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, Wisconsin, and advised its transition from a public entity to a nonprofit. Taylor is past president of the Association of Arts Administration Educators (www.artsadministration.org), board member for Fractured Atlas, and consulting editor for The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, and for Artivate, a journal on arts entrepreneurship. Since July 2003, he has written a popular weblog on the business of arts and culture, “The Artful Manager,” hosted by ArtsJournal.

www.artfulmanager.com

MeetKeynoteSpeakers

8 Meet Keynote Speakers

Business Director & Executive Producer of Digital Theatre

Tom Shaw

Tom Shaw is the Executive Producer of all Digital Theatre and Digital Theatre Plus filmed productions and content, while also overseeing business affairs as a co-founder and Business Director of the company.

For over ten years, Shaw has been a producer across a wide variety of media fields including live events, radio, broadcast, commercial video, and film. Formerly at Amnesty International, Shaw worked in the creative team of the charity, managing a variety of initiatives and projects across the fields of literature, television, comedy, theatre, and arts.

Prior to launching Digital Theatre, he co-founded a Soho production company that produced advertising, commercial and broadcast work.

MeetKeynoteSpeakers

9Meet Keynote Speakers

Curator of SIGNAL∣Prague Light Festival

Curator, Arts Manager, Producer

Jan K. Rolník

Jan Rolník studied Financial Management and Aesthetics (philosophy of art) in Prague and Mexico City. He combines these two approaches (pragmatic and aesthetic) in everything he does: production in performing arts, arts management, cultural heritage mapping, lighting design, curatorship in light art. He founded, produced, curated or managed various projects including Prague Quadrennial 2007, Theatre Architecture in Central Europe (book, exhibition, web database), Institute of Lighting Design Prague, Prague light festival SIGNAL, interactive multimedia installation for Czech pavilion at EXPO 2015 in Milan, festival of stereoscopic video art Parallax, European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 in The Czech Republic and many smaller projects.

Jan Rolník is a lifelong seeker of new challenges and opportunities now explores mainly the world of light art, lighting design, creative use of new technologies and technologies for sustainability and resiliency.

MeetKeynoteSpeakers

Artistic Director of Performance Space

10 Meet Keynote Speakers

Jeff Khan

Jeff Khan is a curator and writer working across performance, dance and the visual arts, with a particular interest in interdisciplinary projects and site-specific and socially-engaged practices.

From 2006–2010, Khan was Artistic Director of Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival, overseeing the development and delivery of the 2008 Next Wave Festival: CLOSER TOGETHER and the 2010 Next Wave Festival: NO RISK TOO GREAT. Khan was Guest Curator of NEW12 at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (2012) and of Primavera 09 at the Museum of Contemporary Art (2009).

His recent curatorial projects for Performance Space include Sonic Social (2013, with Tulleah Pearce) and Local Positioning Systems (2012, with Bec Dean) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia; Micro Parks (2013); Sarah-Jane Norman's Unsettling Suite (2013); and the SEXES festival, co-curated with Bec Dean and Deborah Kelly (2012).

Previously, Khan has held roles at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and John Curtin Gallery (Perth), and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York). As a writer, Khan has contributed texts to numerous exhibition catalogues, magazines and artists’ projects including essays for the Art Gallery of NSW, Art & Australia, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, the Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, and many others. He was a member of the Dance Board of the Australia Council for the Arts (2009-2011) and currently sits on the Board of Chunky Move.

Performance Space

Performance Space is a cultural agency that facilitates new artistic projects and connects them with audiences across many different sites and venues: from theatres and galleries to non-traditional spaces and site-specific projects. ◢

MeetKeynoteSpeakers

11Meet the Panelists

Project Manager of Taipei Performing Arts Center

President of Performing Arts Network Development Association (PANDA)

Founder / Director of Very Mainstream Studio

Winner of Interactive & New Media Award, World Stage Design 2013

Jennifer Lee

Tung-Yen Chou

Jennifer Lee specializes in performing arts event production and human resource management. She has been invited to several theatres, conducting the training programs of theatre services management and production management.

Collaborated with many Taiwan performing arts companies in various long-term projects, Lee also introduced well-known foreign performing arts companies to Taiwan and recommended outstanding local performing arts companies to international arts festivals.

Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC)Scheduled to open in 2016, Taipei Performing Arts Center is designed by OMA, led by

renowned architects Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren. It sits on the belt of the most popular tourist route including the famous Shihlin Night Market, National Palace Museum, National Taiwan Science Education Center, Digital Arts Center as well as the Beitou hot springs. The dynamic and diverse neighborhood makes TPAC one of the most anticipated cultural landmarks in Taipei. The three theatres in TPAC can function independently and autonomously that open up possibilities for innovative performances

Tung-Yen Chou is the founder of Very Mainstream Studio. He holds a MA in Scenography from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the United Kingdom. He works primarily in video art and theatre, and has received high acclaims for his works in recent years. His production, Emptied Memories, won the Interactive and New Media Award at World Stage Design 2013.

Chou has also produced the documentary of Digital Performing Arts Festival since 2011 and edited the book Crossmania: Digital Performing Arts Festival. He devotes to education of digital performing arts in Taiwan.

Very Mainstream StudioFounded by Tung-Yen Chou in 2010, Very Mainstream Studio creates works encompassing

multi-media design, documentary, experimental film and short film. It also engages in the field of technology & performing arts in recent years.

Meetthe

Panelists

12 Meet the Panelists

Executive Officer of Vocal Asia

Leader of Semiscon Vocal Band

Founder / Artistic Director of Golden Bough Theatre

Rong-yu Wang

Wuming Chen

Rong-yu Wang was raised in a family that traveled around to perform Taiwanese Opera. After receiving training at Lan-lin Theater in 1988, one of the initial theatre company which cultivated influential figures in Taiwan theatre community, Wang then joined U Theatre till 1992.

In 1993, Wang founded Golden Bough Theatre. His work is full of unique charm of Taiwanese locality, inspired by Taiwanese folk culture. It is aesthetically distinguished from modern theatre groups influenced by Western theatre.

In 1998, he was awarded Asian Cultural Council fellowship for distinguished achievements in performance and directing. To date, Wang has created 20 original works. Golden Bough Theatre is described as the “Number One Local Theater in Taiwan” for its unique aesthetics.

Wuming Chen founded the first professional a cappella ensemble in Taiwan, Semiscon Vocal Band, in 2004. Semiscon represented Taiwan at Vokal.Total International A Cappella Competition 2004 in Graz, Austria, and won the Ward Swingle Award, the highest honor of a cappella in Europe.

To further promote a cappella, Chen joined Vocal Asia as Executive Officer in 2011 and founded A Cappella Music Festival in Asia. He is also dedicated to the development of middle to small-scale performing arts venues in Taiwan.

Vocal AsiaEstablished in 2010, Vocal Asia is an international platform for contemporary a

cappella. Its mission is to unite Asian a cappella musicians and fans in promoting education and future development of the music and performing genre. Vocal Asia has founded the first A Cappella Music Festival and the first portal site for a cappella in Asia.www.vocalasia.com

Meetthe

Panelists

13Meet the Panelists

Artistic Director/Producer of Close to YOU International Puppet Festival

Founder / Leader of Flying Group Theatre

Director of Community Art Network (CAN) and Art in Hospital

Pei-Yu Shih

Grace Cheng

Pei-Yu Shih is a senior producer and arts manager who has rich experience in performing arts company management, international collaborations, arts festival planning and execution. Shih founded Flying Group Theatre in 2004, a performing arts company dedicated to puppetry.

Close to YOU International Puppet FestivalEstablished by Pei-Yu Shih in 2010, the festival promotes the concept of “do little

things better, make the intimacy stronger.” Performances in this small-scaled arts festival use objects as primary media in theater pieces taking place in non-traditional theatres and intimate spaces.www.closetoyoufestival.com

Grace Cheng is an independent curator dedicated to bringing art to the community and enhancing accessibility of art to people from different walks of life. She has curated the Charming Experience exhibition for Hong Kong Museum of Art in 2009. Audience was invited to embrace art with different senses. Cheng has also curated territory wide public art activities across Hong Kong. She staged Budding Winter in 2010 and Art Alive in Park in 2011. Young emerging artists are recruited from tertiary education institutions to put up artworks in the parks around town.

Cheng is now the Director of Art in Hospital and Community Art Network. She is also an Executive Member of Art with the Disabled Association Hong Kong. Cheng was awarded the Certificate of Commendation by the Secretary for Home Affairs (Hong Kong) in 2009 to recognize her contribution in the promotion of arts and culture.◢

Meetthe

Panelists

14 Micro-theatre: About its space, and some thoughts on the creative process

Temporary “sin spaces” puts spectators “into the game”

Apartment Showcase. Close to YOU Festival. Just

for You Festival. Taipei Fringe Festival. These all step

out of the conventional theatre as “micro-theatre”

productions, performing in venues out of the

ordinary, and becoming a new force of Taiwanese

theatre. These performances have minimal

audiences (sometimes to the point of only one audience member), some

with everyday household items as focal point of the show, and actors might

need to perform a dozen times each day. This refreshing theatre trend

has opened up a new and alternative way for the audience to experience

theatre, and has enabled them to role-play, while enjoy the fun of breaking

the conventional patterns.

By Kuo Liang-ting

Translated by Kevin Nian-kai Wang

This article is abridged from the original feature in 2014, January issue of

Performing Arts Review (PAR)

and some thoughtson the creative process

Micro-theatre:About its space,

15Micro-theatre: About its space, and some thoughts on the creative process

On July 22, 2013, the curators and creators of the Apartment Showcase, the Close to YOU Festival, the Just for You Festival, and the Taipei Fringe Festival gathered to hold a discussion, entitled “Micro-theatre? A new, intimate aesthetic of spectatorship and performance in Taipei’s experimental theatre”. The question mark after “micro-theatre” shows that the concept is not based on any calculations of size. Creators use spaces that are certainly smaller than black box theatres, against

the “bigger is better” mantra prevalent in building construction, exploring the uniqueness of everyday spaces such as cafés, bookstores, art gallery hallways, and even residential apartments. That evening, the participants pushed further beyond the question mark: What changes when the theatre becomes micro-sized?

Ever yone has their own ways and methods, which I have roughly summarized into the following four key points.

Space, object, body, and labor

The first—and most surprising—aspect is that, when the space for performance is shrunk beyond all expectations, the possibilities for performance instead broaden beyond one’s wildest dreams. Theatre operative Wu Si-feng gave an example of a production at Cars Together project during Huashan Living Arts: As soon as the car is on the road, the spectator is tied down in simulation of being kidnapped, and the drama becomes one of the “kidnapper” telling his story. As the passengers respond, they become a participant in this act of storytelling, and the inside of the car becomes a space for the “kidnapper” and the “hostage” to exchange stories. This has got to be the most extreme example

of all. I think it is even a stretch to say that this was an act of “becoming”—whether inside a car, a living room, or a hotel, these productions differ from conventional plays inside a theatre in that the theatre platform can become many different places, but in micro-theatre a spade is a spade: if an apartment is used, it is an apartment; if a hotel room is used, it is a hotel room. The “space” is no longer a container or backdrop for the performance; rather, it becomes the theme, the subject.

Second, when the performers and audience share a relationship that is as close as it can possibly get, the objects in the performance are no longer mere props that are located and used on stage. They, too, siege an actor’s role,

16 Micro-theatre: About its space, and some thoughts on the creative process

each with its own quality, vivacity, touch, taste, and language, each telling its own story. The fourth Close to YOU Festival was in essence a lexicon of object syntax, with productions using cans and bottles, paper, flour, clay, and even iPhones. Falling under this category are also Craig Quintero’s obsessive-compulsive use of clear plastic tubing in his Just for You Festival, and Tseng Yen-ting’s dissection of a doll into light switches.

Third, the intimacy of micro-theatre means that the relationship between performers and audience, being-viewed and viewer, can switch at any time. In such examples as Cars Together Project and the Just for You Festival, only one audience member

is allowed at each performance; here there is, strictly speaking, no one in the “audience”, only individual participants in a performance. If we go even further, doing stuff like blindfolding the passenger as soon as he steps into the car, or as in Six Feet Under, Ten Feet Above by Riverbed Theatre Company, throwing a bed sheet onto the participant and forcing her to lie down into complete darkness on a wooden bed, thus simulating the experience of dying and being buried, then even the act of “viewing” disappears, replaced by the opening of all the other senses, and even the pores on one’s skin. Such a body is no longer one waiting to see a good play; it is a body that is put on high alert as it nears the performers.

Finally, when the act of performing and viewing a performance become increasingly indistinguishable, the performers and audience can only be told apart by their labor. That is to say, to offer an intimate experience to each individual member of the audience, the performers must labor in a highly repeated, recurrent, and concentrated fashion, perhaps performing as many as a dozen times in one afternoon. Of course, all theatre performances are repetitive by nature; it is just that in micro-theatre, this aspect is magnified.◢

Nobody Gets Hurt, photo by Riverbed Theatre

17The Next Step for the Ministry of Culture

Straddling Between the Future & the Past, Taiwan’s Arts & Culture Enter a New Stage

It has been six hundred days since

Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture was

established. According to Lung Ying-

Tai, the Minister of Culture, she spent

the first five hundred days tracing the

convoluted and disjointed cultural policies and regulations and reorganizing

them to ensure the efficient operation of the relatively young agency. The

performing arts community has certainly benefited from the Ministry’s

various endeavors, such as the exciting “Taiwan Brand Project” and other

programs that were initiated when the agency was still called the Council of

Cultural Affairs. However, the general public still expects that the Ministry

of Culture could serve as a helmsman for Taiwan’s cultural development and

lead the country’s cultural activities toward a brighter future.

By Andy Yu, Chairman of Performing Arts Alliance

This article is abridged from the original feature in 2014 January issue of

Performing Arts Review (PAR).

The

for the Ministry of Culture:

NextStep

18 The Next Step for the Ministry of Culture

agency to oversee all cultural affairs, but others have pointed out that so-called culture covers a wide range of activities, making it impossible for one agency to be responsible for them all. Modeled after the Council for Economic Affairs, CCA delegated culture-related duties to different ministries under the Executive Yuan. Some thought arts and culture should be allowed to flourish at its own pace and that once the resources and authority are centralized in the Ministry, they would lose their diversity. Lastly, critics have also expressed concern that once the Ministry is designated as the agency in charge of cultural affairs, the other agencies would shrug off all responsibilities, making it more difficult for cross-agency collaboration.

As of 2014, Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture has been established for over six hundred days. The public had long hoped for such an agency. Before the Executive Yuan amended the basic code governing central administrative agencies organization, the only sign that the Ministry would be established was a verbal promise from then deputy prime minister, Lien Chan, during a national conference on cultural development in 1997. It then took another fifteen years for that promise to be realized.

There are various opinions on the necessity of Ministry of Culture in Taiwan. The agency’s antecedent, the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA), served only an advisory role and had no real authority. The mainstream opinion was that there should be a central

Tracing the “Underground Pipelines” & Reforming Cultural Policies

In a recent interview by Taiwan’s Business Weekly, Minister Lung pointed out that in the Ministry’s first five hundred days, the agency was preoccupied with tracing the “underground pipel ines ,” f rom previous years, meaning that the cultural policies and regulations are convoluted, lacking in transparency, and disjointed like pipelines and cables buried underground. In the interview,

she hopes to keep track of all the lost “cables and pipelines” and repair and reorganize them so as to allow the agency to function with the greatest efficiency.

The difficulties Minister Lung faces are not unexpected. It is always hard to merge the staff and responsibilities from different agencies. Moreover, the issue of resource allocation involved in cultural policies is often based on

19The Next Step for the Ministry of Culture

subjective opinions and often not justified by statistics and scientific research. Even the more senior government officials in the Ministry of Culture cannot call themselves

experts in the field. Without long-term research and accumulation of experiences, they will always be fumbling for solutions in times of crisis.

“Taiwan Brand Project” Graduating Out of the Three-Tier Funding Project

The establishment of the Ministry of Culture lead to the restructuring of Taiwan’s arts and cultural administrative system, involving elaborate changes in organization, regulations, work methods, and even the administrators’ mindsets. The performing arts community, however, was less affected by such drastic changes.

Taiwan Brand Project, a subsidy program for performing arts groups, is one of the Ministry’s most prominent efforts in the field. Often considered an “elite” program, it awards a total

of NT$10,000,000 (US$ 333,000) to five performing arts organizations and serves as the next step for the less exclusive Three-Tier Funding Project.

Taiwan Brand Project expands the spirit of the Three-Tier Funding Project, with an emphasis on injecting resources to each group and assisting the management team to build a solid foundation. At the same time, the five groups selected for the elite program will open up more resources from the Three-Tier Project for younger companies.

Maintaining its Success Projects & Providing a Stable Environment for Performing Arts

Another successful endeavor from the Ministry of Culture is a three-year-old program that aims to bolster the operation of municipal theaters and transform them into professional theaters. The program provides financial support to local venues

and assists them to strengthen its capabilities and marketing skills, as well as providing customized support. It has proven beneficial to cultural centers in cities, such as Kaohsiung, Tainan, Pintung, Chiayi County, Taitung, and Taoyuan. When those local venues

20 The Next Step for the Ministry of Culture

take initiatives in improving its services and marketing skills, performing arts groups also benefit directly.

Another program, which has been running for four years, provides financial support to performing arts groups that bring their productions and education programs to venues in remote areas in Taiwan, such as Hualian, Taitung, and various offshore islands. Many events are inspired by local folk festival. With steady efforts, the program now often combine traditional local culture and education in areas such as Pintung, Penghu, and Tainan. Hua-Shan Living Arts Festival, founded in 2010 and now in its fourth

year, has been a great opportunity for both the performing arts community and the audience, in terms of audience cultivation, marketing, and peer interaction. It also provides the chance for local groups to connect with the international performing arts community.

T h e a b o v e p r o g r a m s w e r e initiated by the Ministry of Culture’s predecessor, and were generously extended until now despite the organizational restructuring. The continuance of the successful projects will certainly provide a stable growth environment for the performing arts community.

The Ministry of Cultural as the Helmsman of Taiwan’s Cultural Development

2013 was a year of much joy as well as sadness: the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement continued to cause controversy; Cloud Gate Dance Company of Taiwan celebrated its fortieth anniversary; Ping Fong Acting Troupe was disbanded at the height of its accomplishment; new laws would soon be passed to establish a National Performing Arts Center; the fate of Novel Hall was still unclear by the end of the year. Many questions are yet to be answered: how do we make sure that the trade agreement with China would

bring a bigger market and not mutual destruction? Will Cloud Gate continue to thrive for another forty years? How may Ping Fong find its footing again? How can we bring a new business model to the national theaters? There are many challenges ahead: young artists will always need assistance; we need a more comprehensive platform for international exchange; smaller organizations continue to face business difficulties; we need more performance and rehearsal spaces in urban area for smaller and mid-sized productions; and

21The Next Step for the Ministry of Culture

there should be better job protection for artists who are struggling in an unstable labor market. All of those issues are standing by as Minister Lung completes her task to sort through the “underground pipelines,” and the performing arts community is waiting to initiate a conversation with the Ministry, and the public is expecting reformed cultural policies. Taiwanese society needs more than an efficient administrative agency in the Ministry of Culture. It needs a helmsman to take the country’s cultural development to a new level.

As it faces many challenges, the Ministry of Culture needs vision and determination and must do more looking toward the past. While cultural policies must be based on grand vision, those visions should also be executable through practical actions, as the past accomplishment of the Council on Cultural Affairs proved. Taiwan is constantly changing, and the Ministry must respond to the needs of the society, offer a realistic cultural policy, and work with the public to create a brighter future.◢