After a year of renovation, the building that is to house Taiwan's first international art village was completed yesterday and will be open to the public on Sept. 30.
Inspecting the site, located at the intersection of Tienchin Street and Peiping East Road in downtown Taipei, director of Taipei City's Bureau of Cultural Affairs Lung Ying-tai (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"When I came here four years ago to see whether it was suitable to become the venue for the art village, it was an abandoned government office with a serious water leakage problem. Look now how the ugly duckling has become a beautiful swan and how a ghost house has turned out to be a shining piece of jewelry," she said.
Lung added that with the completion of the project, the city is seeking to provide a stage for local and international artists alike to interact with each other as well as the general public.
"Our goal is to start a network connecting art villages around the world, local private art groups and government art organizations," she said.
There are currently about 300 art villages around the globe.
The renovation of the 48-year-old, four-story office took about nine months and cost about NT$40 million. Half of the fund was donated to the city by Lin Bai-li (林百里), president of Quanta Computer, and the other half came from the mayor's supplementary fund.
Although the building is not scheduled to open officially until Sept. 30, two international artists, visual artist Aliza Olmert from Israel and poet Erik Lindner from Holland, moved into the facility yesterday.
They are two of the first group of international artists scheduled to stay in the village for between one week and three months.
While eight of those soon to arrive will visit as part of the city-sponsored Taipei 2001 International Poetry Festival, two are in the artists-in-residence program.
Since the city inaugurated the artists-in-residence program last year, about 20 international artists have visited Taiwan and eight local creative talents have visited three foreign countries.
Looking out from the window of his nearly-empty studio on the second floor, Lindner, a guest of the poetry festival, said that he is satisfied with his room.
"It feels like home, and the ceiling is high enough," said Lindner, who stands at 197cm.
Lindner said that his first impression of Taipei was that it was "hectic" and "multicultural."
"It's not much different from Amsterdam, which is also a dynamic and populated metropolis," said Lindner, who is scheduled to stay in the village for two months.
The building has nine other rooms like Lindner's. The city hopes to furnish them shortly. Most of the furniture will be donated by the Ritz Landis Hotel.
In addition to the 10 rooms, there is a workshop with computer and Internet facilities, a darkroom and a multimedia workroom. The first floor of the building will be accessible to the public, and holds a gallery, an auditorium, a cafe and an information center.
According to Kuo Wan-li (郭萬里), chief of the bureau's international affairs section and the supervisor of the renovation project, it will cost at least NT$20 million per year to maintain the home.
"Financing will be tight since we expect the city council to trim the budget proposed for next year substantially," he said. "We don't anticipate the offer of any more financial resources since he [Quanta Computer president Lin] has suggested that he's not the genie in the lamp."
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
The China Coast Guard has seized control of a disputed reef near a major Philippine military outpost in the South China Sea, Beijing’s state media said, adding to longstanding territorial tensions with Manila. Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea and has waved away competing assertions from other countries as well as an international ruling that its position has no legal basis. China and the Philippines have engaged in months of confrontations in the contested waters, and Manila is taking part in sweeping joint military drills with the US which Beijing has slammed as destabilizing. The Chinese coast guard
RSS