The Taipei City Government yesterday unveiled works by artists with Prader-Willi syndrome that are to be displayed on the sides of 30 public buses running between New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止) and the Taipei’s Yuanshan MRT Station.
In an early celebration of Friday’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the city government yesterday opened the exhibition at Taipei City Hall’s Civic Plaza.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) told the event that the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index this year gave Taipei a high score in the educational resources category, but the city scored lower in international art and cultural events, prompting his administration to work on enriching Taipei’s art scene.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
As the city government regularly places public service advertising on buses and MRT trains serving metropolitan Taipei, it decided to include works by artists with the genetic disorder that causes intellectual disability and obesity, Ko said, adding that the project would further their inclusion in the city’s art scene.
The works would be displayed through the end of this year on the sides of Kuang-Hua Bus Co’s Red 2 route, which runs between Shehou (社后) and Yuanshan MRT Station, the city government said.
One of the designs displayed at the ceremony showed a green dinosaur chasing a vehicle, while another design shows colorful fireworks in front of a night sky.
Su Yi-ho (蘇亦禾), who painted the fireworks piece, is a recipient of the President Educational Award.
Su said she was inspired by the Busan Fireworks Festival when creating the piece.
Prader-Willi Syndrome Association Taiwan founder Chin Huei-chu (秦慧珠), who is a Taipei city councilor for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), said that artists have told him about talented children living with the syndrome who might become great artists if trained professionally.
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