Artist villages set for tough times

Wu Ma-li (吳瑪俐), professor at Taiwan Arts University who is researching artist communities in Germany, argues for a more business-minded approach: "The subsidy was meant to help the artist villages in their initial stages, before they found other sources of funding. Although a certain proportion of subsidizing is necessary for art activities, subsidizing all of the more than a dozen artist villages in Taiwan is not necessary. ? It is, however, possible for the government to concentrate its money on a couple of the most eligible artist villages whose function would be to provide artists with working environments."

"The government practically transferred part of the Jeoujeoufeng budget to the establishment of local artist villages. It was never meant to be permanent," Wu said. A permanent solution to the funding problem is to draw in private businesses, as is done in the US.

At present, the most famous privately funded art establishment in Taiwan is the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Quanta Computer donated a combined total of 50 percent of the funds for its establishment.

"This sort of practice needs to be encouraged," Wu said. "The government's over-generosity gave rise to a surplus of artist villages. Now the better-managed of these will survive and find their own sources of funding, hopefully with some help from businesses."