Department of Cultural Affairs

Taipei Film Festival

The Taipei Film Festival is a major cultural event of the Taipei City Government, in which film serves as a medium to document the meaning of the city's culture, to promote interaction and mutual understanding between Taipei and other cities, and thus to build deep and solid friendships with cities around the world. This event provides the people of Taipei with the opportunity to become acquainted with Taiwanese and overseas films, increases people's interest in filmmaking, and brings together the resources of schools and society in order to cultivate and expand the number of people who appreciate film. It also encourages young, non-mainstream and independent filmmakers to actively engage in film production, making the Taipei Film Festival a major event for aspiring motion picture professionals.

Children's Arts Festival

Since 2000, Taipei has held the Children's Arts Festival every summer holiday. Centered on the theme of theater, this event includes drama classes, theater tours, creative performances in local communities and other activities. Children come to understand the arts by personally participating in them, by being creative within a group and by viewing the performance of quality dramas and exhibitions from Taiwan and abroad, so that the arts set down roots in the next generation.

Taipei Art Festival

The Taipei Art Festival is one of the Taipei City Government's most important arts and culture events. Established to promote the performing arts industry, advance art education and increase participation in arts events, the Festival marries the resources of government, business and private individuals, and establishes cooperative relationships between Taipei and international performing arts groups. By presenting a wide variety of artistic forms, the Festival helps encourage artistic creation and increase the depth and breadth of artists' creativity, thus promoting international artistic and cultural exchange, expanding participation among the city's residents, and making the arts part of daily life.

Taipei International Poetry Festival

Poetry and song express the feelings of the heart, and transform them into language. A city's poetry represents its culture, the manifestation of its dreams, and its many aspirations for the future. By holding the Taipei International Poetry Festival, the Department of Cultural Affairs hopes to increase the number of people in Taipei that read poetry, to open a channel for the expression of aesthetic experience, and to create a new artistic realm for the city.

Taipei Literature Award

This award is meant to document the transformation of Taipei, and to realize a fresh "literature of the people," a pure, genuine, diverse aesthetic vision that reflects the city's vitality. Moreover, through seminars, publication and display, the festival seeks to market and package the unique qualities of a literature centered on Taipei.

Public art

Public art has always been an essential component of Taipei's appearance. The bronze statues of great men that rose up in the center of each of the city's traffic circles in the early days or the mosaic murals in Jiantan Park have all become the collective memory of the people of Taipei. With the passage of the Procedures for the Installation of Public Art in 1998, a new page was opened in the city's public art efforts. Art pieces have now appeared in rapid transit system stations, schools and many other public spaces, and they have come to embrace the broadest spectrum of forms e.g. video, glass collage, interactive installations, art pieces that serve as benches, and more overturning pre-established notions of what public art must be.

The reutilization of idle spaces

The Department of Cultural Affairs is dedicated to giving new life to historical sites, historical buildings and other idle spaces. Making use of the ample productivity and imagination of private businesses and a variety of creative artistic and cultural activities, we transform historically significant spaces into special venues for the arts and culture, for the benefit of Taipei's people. Since it was founded, the Department of Cultural Affairs has harnessed the creative dynamism of the private sector to bring new life to historical sites and unused spaces, reducing the government's financial outlays. The Department has already commissioned private businesses to run the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; the Mayor's Residence Arts Salon; the Chien Mu House; the Lin Yutang House; Guling St. Avant-Garde Theatre; Spot-Taipei Film House; the Red Playhouse; Taipei Story House; Cao Shan Chateau and the Taipei Puppet Theatre. In the future, other venues such as the Zhishanyan Exhibition Hall, the Beitou Hot Springs Museum will also be renovated and reutilized in a similar fashion.