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Taipei councilors concerned about art centers' profits

Taipei city councilors yesterday urged the city's Cultural Affairs Bureau to make public the profit and loss statements of two art centers located in restored historical sites.

Four councilors yesterday inspected the SPOT-Taipei Film House (光點台北) and Taipei Story House (台北故事館), which are both located in renovated historical sites that have existed in Taipei City since the 1910s. The councilors said the two art centers, which make a roaring trade due to the additional income from their restaurants, must release their profit and loss statement to the city's Cultural Affairs Bureau. The bureau should in turn report to the city council.

"The Cultural Affairs Bureau contracted private sector companies or individuals to manage the restored art centers, which was the idea that we [city councilors] supported," said New Party City Councilor Fei Hung-tai (費鴻泰). "But we think the maintenance of the historical sites and the management of the profits should be clearly separated."

Fei said the current situation was that the operators of the two art centers are also playing the role of supervisors, which he thought was inappropriate.

"The two art centers are located in Taipei's golden mile and the bureau also allocated budgets for them if they are in the red. But the bureau was not clear about the business aspect," Fei said.

The SPOT-Taipei Film House, located on Chungshan N. Road, is the former American ambassa-dor's residence that had been built by the Japanese in 1926. After the restoration, sponsored by the Education and Culture Foundation of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台機電文教基金會), SPOT was converted into an arthouse movie theater and exhibition space in November last year. It is managed by movie director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) and his staff, who aimed to make it a film-oriented complex promoting Taiwanese movies. In addition to the movie theaters, the SPOT-Taipei Film House also runs a coffee shop and a restaurant that the city councilors claim is making good business.

The Taipei Story House, located on Yuanshan Road, was built in 1914 by a Taiwanese tea trader, Chen Chao-chun (陳朝駿), as his private villa to receive his friends.

Chen Kuo-tsi (陳國慈), a lawyer and chairwoman of the Female Cancer Foundation, who won the contract to operate the historic villa, transformed it into a children's museum and exhibition place. The Taipei Story House also runs a restaurant as an additional business.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Councilor Li-Keng Kuei-fang (厲耿桂芳) said according to regulations, the art centers, which are the city government's property, should give 10 percent of their revenue to the city if they turn a profit.

Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Liao Hsien-hao (廖咸浩) said the two art centers just opened last year and have thus far not any made money, as far as he knew.
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