The American Culture Center, for years known for promoting new artists and English learning at its former location on Nan Hai Road, has reopened at its new location in eastern Taipei in the International Trade Building on Keelung Road. With a new, modern look, the reinvigorated center offers updated, streamlined services and is launching its new image with the Taiwan premier of an exhibit that has been touring the world.
"After Sept 11: Images from Ground Zero," photograph's by New York photographer Joel Meyerowitz, will be shown in the new American Cultural Center from July 8 to 24. It features 27 pictures chosen from among 5,000 that Meyerowitz, winner of a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, took as the only photographer allowed to have unimpeded access to Ground Zero just two days after the September 11 attacks on the New York World Trade Center.
The photos offers a stunning reflection of the September 11th attacks on the US and the reaction of the American people in human terms, and can be appreciated from an artistic, photo journalism or global issues perspective.
After being unveiled in Washington, D., at the State Department by Secretary of State Colin Powell, "Images From Ground Zero" made its overseas debut at the Museum of London on March 5, 2002.
To date, in addition to the UK, it has shown in more than 60 cities: In France and throughout the European continent, in Eastern Europe from Russia and throughout the New Republics, in South America (Chile and Ecuador), in the Middle East (Kuwait), in sub-Saharan Africa from Nigeria in the west to Kenya in the east, and in East Asia in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia.
"Images From Ground Zero" will open in Beijing on Sept 11, on the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the US. By Dec 2002, it will have been seen in 110 cities.
Following its American Cultural center debut, the exhibit will continue to be on view in Taiwan over the next three years at sites around the island: In Tainan, Chung-li, Hsin Chu, and Taichung, in addition to several showings in and around Taipei, including Yangmingshan.
On Sept 11, 2002, the exhibit will open at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts to commemorate the first year anniversary of the horrendous attacks.
The American Cultural Center, which is part of the American Institute in Taiwan's Cultural and Information Section, carries out a wide range of programs to promote awareness of American life and culture: It maintains the AIT Web site and the American Information Web site, which provide information on many aspects of US society and culture.
It conducts and co-sponsors speaker programs, discussions, exhibits and cultural performances and maintains close relations with major Taiwan universities and think tanks.
The center arranges and facilitates the visits of a large number of individuals and groups who travel to US on professional development and study tours each year.
The center also works with various institutions to coordinate many professional and academic exchanges. These include working with the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange on the Fulbright Scholar Program. The American Cultural Center also houses a high-tech library, the Resource Service, which provides the latest information on US government policy and American society and culture.
The American Cultural Center is on the 21F of the Taiwan World Trade Center International Trade Building, 333 Keelung Road, Section 1, Taipei, tel. 2723-3959, web:ait.org.tw
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