Art in Context: Taiwan

The conversation, which was moderated by Sarah Tanguy, a curator with the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies program, featured voices from the art, policy, and academic worlds, including Pin-Chieh Tseng, an emerging visual and installation artist from Taiwan, Jack Yeh-Chin Kuei, the Director of Taiwan Academy at the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. (TECRO), and Dr. Ying-Chen Peng, an associate professor of art history at American University. Over the course of the discussion, panelists touched on issues such as the role of government patronage in the arts, gender, the creative economy in Taiwan, and the changing perceptions and representations of Taiwan on regional and global stages. Notably, Peng and Kuei highlighted the impact of Taiwan’s long history of colonization on shifting notions of cultural authenticity and identity on the island. In tandem with these political changes, art forms such as impressionism or traditional ink painting gained or lost prominence depending on the policies of ruling powers. Turning their attention to the contemporary conditions influencing art production, the panelists compared models of institutional support for the arts in the U.S. and in Taiwan.