The Chiayi County Embroidery Culture Museum on Friday received a private donation from the US, the first time the museum has ever received a donation from overseas.
The gift of the Qing Dynasty silk embroidery is significant in that it represents the potential for soft power exchanges between Taiwan and nations like the US, with which Taiwan has no official ties.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to transit through the US on Saturday on her way to visit allies in Oceania. The Presidential Office has said that such transits are important to increasing the nation’s international visibility, but during transits, Tsai will only at best meet with state-level officials. The visit will likely go unnoticed by the general public.
What would be even more effective in terms of visibility and soft power would be exchanges between individuals or institutions that have influence in their communities.
Tsai, speaking at the opening ceremony of the National Cultural Congress on Sept. 2, said that Taiwan is “becoming more international, and if we can establish a more complete system, the younger generation will be able to find its roots here and in the process dig up an endless amount of subject material.”
Stephen Pisturino, the Nevada resident who donated the piece, had received it from a friend who is an art teacher, meaning that Pisturino is well positioned to connect Taiwanese with cultural content creators in the US.
If educators and curators work to foster such links and promote exchanges with their counterparts in the US, Europe and elsewhere, people will become more familiar with Taiwan and its unique culture.
Institutions that are promoting Taiwanese artists internationally — such as Lin & Lin Gallery, SOKA Art Center and the Asia Art Center — could play an important role in increasing the nation’s visibility if they were to engage the communities in which they hold exhibits.
For example, artists from the Asia Art Center have exhibited in Italy’s Venice Biennale, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, London’s British Museum, Switzerland’s Museum of Fine Arts Bern and others. While these exhibitions bring prestige to Taiwanese artists, there is still room for a greater connection with those communities.
On its Web site, the center says that it collaborates with international professionals to curate exhibitions with significant academic value.
“For the past 30 years, we witnessed the political reform and opening up in the 1990s in Taiwan... As one of the leading galleries in Asia, we believe that a unique artistic vocabulary can be informed through returning to the womb of our artistic heritage,” the center’s English-language Web site says.
One way for the center to achieve its aims would be to work with disadvantaged young people at schools in the large cities where its artists visit.
As Americans for the Arts president and chief executive Robert Lynch said: “The arts are America’s secret weapon in developing our communities and cities.”
If Taiwanese art institutions partnered with initiatives such as the pARTnership Movement, it would put Taiwan firmly in the minds of the world’s young people and community leaders, who in turn would become a powerful force in gaining support for Taiwan to achieve its other international aims.
In the same vein, summer camps and informal art exchanges could be arranged to allow young people from Taiwan and other nations to become familiar with each other’s cultures. Through government support, scholarships could be provided to allow disadvantaged young people to participate.
Art can be a great way for Taiwan to develop its soft power and increase its international visibility, while facilitating its cultural and educational aims.
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