The National Taiwan Museum in Taipei yesterday marked the opening of a new exhibition showcasing the diversity of Taiwan’s butterfly species with more than 300 exhibits.
“Butterfly and Blessing: Resonance Between Art and Science,” was organized with help from National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Department of Entomology, the museum said.
It was curated by Yang Ping-shih (楊平世), a well-known entomologist and a professor emeritus at NTU’s College of Bioresources and Agriculture, it said.
The exhibition, which officially opened to the public on Tuesday last week, features 342 exhibits, including items from the museum’s collection, butterfly specimens from the department, as well as butterfly-related artifacts from Yang’s personal collection, the museum said.
It portrays butterflies from a scientific, cultural and artistic perspective, it said.
Although Taiwan proper has an area of just 36,000km2, as many as 454 species of butterflies have been recorded in the nation, it added.
Among them, 56 species and four subspecies are endemic to Taiwan, it said.
Due to the high density of butterfly species, the high ratio of endemic species and the diversity of ecological resources on the island, Taiwan enjoys the reputation of being the “butterfly kingdom,” it said.
“Butterflies are the stars of the insect world,” museum director Hung Shih-yu (洪世佑) said, adding that not only do butterflies help to pollinate plants and maintain ecological balance, but they have also served as sources of inspiration in poetry, painting and other forms of art.
The exhibition displays a representative selection of butterfly-related artifacts, including paintings of butterflies, and butterfly-inspired items such as jade, jewelry, snuff bottles, paperweights and fans, Yang said.
He hopes that the family-friendly exhibition and its surrounding activities will help raise awareness about butterfly conservation, he said.
Preparations for “Butterfly and Blessing” took up to three years, Yang said in an introduction he wrote for a book on the exhibition published by the museum
Inspired by the exhibition, perhaps collectors of cultural relics in Taiwan will choose animal and plant-themed items for their collections, he said.
Hung, in the introduction he wrote for the book, said he hoped the exhibition, as well as the activities and publications the museum has organized in relation to it, will produce a “butterfly effect.”
In a partnership with the Taipei Public Library, a mobile library with books related to butterflies would be parked in the plaza outside the museum’s main building on Nov. 21 and 22, the museum said.
The exhibition is located on the first floor of the museum’s main building in Zhongzheng District (中正).
It runs until April 25 next year.
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