Treasure Hill, a former veterans’ community in Taipei City’s Gongguan (公館) area, will reopen to the public today as an artist village after four years of renovation.
The neighborhood will now include 14 art studios, two exhibition rooms and two rehearsal rooms, according to Su Yao-hua (蘇瑤華), director of Treasure Hill Artist Village’s operation center.
The community is also home to 22 families, who moved back to Treasure Hill after the renovation work.
Su said the families will be living with the artists in the same village, and the artists are encouraged to take the community and its residents as the main inspiration for their works of art.
Home to veterans of the Chinese Civil War who fled to Taiwan with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) about 60 years ago, Treasure Hill used to be packed with aging and illegal structures built by the residents.
The Taipei City Government designated the community as a historical site in 2004, and the community became the center of attention after the New York Times in 2006 named it one of the must-see destinations in Taiwan.
In 2007, the city government’s Department of Cultural Affairs started a renovation project aimed at turning the area into an artists’ community, and sparked protests from a group of artists living in the neighborhood who refused to leave and vowed to continue occupying the area.
A total of 29 households were later moved to a transitional housing block near the construction area, and some residents chose to accept compensation of NT$720,000 (US$23,000) to move away from Treasure Hill permanently.
Wang Yi-chun (王逸群), chief secretary of the department, said that to respect the privacy of the residents in the community, the artist village will not be open to the public after this weekend. Those who are interested in visiting the community can make a reservation with the village.
A parade in celebration of the artist village will be held in front of Shuiyuan Market (水源市場) at 1:30pm today.
The opening ceremony for the village will start at 2pm, and the 9th annual Daniel Pearl Day of Music will also take place at the same time.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS