Artist villages set for tough times

The establishment of artist villages around Taiwan was first proposed in 1991 as part of the central government's Six-year National Construction Plan (六年國建計劃), when the Executive Yuan decided to build a single, large artist village in central Taiwan. A 29-hectare plot in Jeoujeoufeng (九九峰) in Nantou (南投) was earmarked for a multi-functional space that would house resident artists as well as spaces for them to exhibit their art. International artist exchanges were also in the works.

Nature threw a wrench in these plans when the 921 earthquake destroyed the proposed site in 1999, just as preparations were underway. The entire project was then aborted, a casualty of the central government's bureaucratic reforms. A new office, the Artist Village Resource Center (藝術村資源中心), was established in its stead to assist local governments in setting up smaller artist villages with funding from the Council for Culture Affairs, which would use money from the old Jeoujeoufeng project to subsidize the villages for three years.

Taipei Artist Village, Pier 2 Artist Village (駁二藝術村) and Chiao-zai-tou Artist Village (橋仔頭藝術村) in Kaohsiung; Zung-ya Artist Village (總爺藝術村) and An-ping Artist Village (安平藝術村) in Tainan; and Sha-hu-li Artist Village (沙湖壢藝術村) in Hsinchu were all set up last year on the strength of the then NT$24 million yearly subsidy.

This year's subsidy was used to establish the new F3 Artist Village in Pingtung, Chichi Artist Village (磯碕藝術村) in Hualien and Ching-bi Artist Village (芹壁藝術村) in Matsu, as well as fund the six old ones.

With the single exception of Sha-hu-li Artist Village, which was built on donated private land, the artist villages were constructed on land formerly occupied by government entities -- such as old state-run factories and piers.

This practice was inspired by artist communities in the West, namely Soho, where governments subsidized their artists by providing them with a place to live. But in Taiwan, the yearly NT$24 million government subsidy was only to last three years. The government then cut this figure to NT$10.8 million last year, and it cancelled the planned third year altogether.

In order to make up for the shortfall, the Artist Village Resource Center has started working with local culture halls instead. The existing artist villages will have to apply to local governments or Cultural Affairs Bureau as part of local culture halls in order to receive government funding, which is no longer guaranteed.

The sudden termination of the funding has roused discontent among artist village management. Chiao-zai-tou Artist Village, one of the more highly regarded artist villages in Taiwan, has been functioning mainly with the help of volunteer workers since their share of this year's subsidy is not enough to run the village. The cancellation of next year's subsidy means that things have gone from bad to worse.

"Artists are idealistic by nature. The artists running the village were willing to maintain the village for very little money in return. But the policy shift made us realize the government is not committed to the project. The term `artist village' was just a slogan, casually dropped a couple of years after it went out of fashion. Next time the government comes up with some other slogan, we won't know whether or not to trust them," village head Chen Hsian-song (陳賢頌) said. Chen's monthly salary is a paltry NT$10,000.