Department of Cultural Affairs

Photo by Taipei Fine Arts Museum
The south gallery of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum has a section dedicated to “Urban Modernology  - Colors of Taipei”.
 

The Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) started the project “Let Art go into Communities” in 2009. The project sought to engage people by exposing them to the arts and thus enhance their awareness of art in local communities. This year TFAM collaborated with Xue Xue Foundation to launch the project “Urban Modernology – Colors of Taipei”. They invited teachers and students from three schools -- Yong-an Elementary school, Minzu Elementary school, and Shezi Elementary school -- to propose the representative colors for this modern city. The results of the work they did are exhibited in the south gallery of TFAM.
 
“Urban Modernology– Colors of Taipei” was inspired by the thought that the colors we see in our environments often influence our feelings. The colors form an important aspect of the character of a place.
 

Photo by LRM
Step 1- Research the culture. 

 

Photo by LRM
Step 2 – Collect materials during field trips.

Another source of inspiration for this project was the museum collection “Twelve Points of Interest in Taipei”, 12 paintings by the Japanese painter Gobara Koto. “Points of interest” included historical artifacts and special sceneries from the Edo period of Japan.
 

Photo by LRM
Step 3 – Dialogue and discussion.

 
TFAM invited literary scholars, historians, and local people, to lead the 3 schools in implementing urban modernology. They chose some local communities and turned them into bases for art education. The students from the three schools collected materials during field trips, and discussed their choices together. In the end they chose some special landscapes that reflected a wealth of humanistic culture, and then chose the colors that they thought best represented them, thus creating a new art. The students considered their journey of research as the best way to know contemporary Taipei.
 

Photo by LRM
Step 4 – Discover cultural colors.

The project “Let Art go into Communities” has been going on for 10 years. By participating in this project, residents of local communities learned how to find and appreciate the beauty they failed to see in their own communities.
 
The south gallery of the museum depicts the work done by the students in their research journey. The gallery became like a colorful corridor which linked the past and the present. The exhibition runs from November 16th through December 15^th. Admission is free. Everyone’s welcome to learn more about Taipei through this exhibition. Enjoy the colorful art in this colorful season!