Department of Cultural Affairs

Ordinary by Formosa Circus Art, a CIP-supported performance (Photo by TPAC)

Rewritten by Leo R. Maliksi
 
Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC) is using its new Creative Incubation Platform (CIP) to bring representatives from art venues in northern, central, and southern Taiwan together for the first time. The platform helps art exhibition centers, performance halls, and other art venues to enter into collaborative ventures and share resources for artistic events.
 
The CIP’s creation was facilitated by a grant from the Taipei City Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs under the Performing Arts Project Subsidy scheme. This subsidy made it possible for TPAC to draw up the Creative Festival Current Exhibition Plan, which includes the Taipei Children’s Arts Festival and the Taipei Fringe Festival.
 
On December 2 and 3, representatives of art performances and exhibition venues gathered at the Taipei Auditorium to suggest events that could be included in the plan. A total of 39 events were put forward, including drama, dance, circus, and musicals.
 
In fact, the CIP was built on the Creative Festival Current Exhibition Plan, which differs from the original system in that it also provides R&D resources to further improve a creative concept and support its eventual production. The CIP also helps event organizers find venues around Taiwan—other than the TPAC—where their productions can be staged.
 
 Collaboration and Resource-Pooling


Taichung National Opera Theater recommended a CIP subsidy for “Endearing Days,” an acrobatic performance with puppets and musical accompaniment (Photo by TPAC)

Since its inception in 2016, the Creative Festival Current Exhibition Plan has supported 57 teams and 86 projects, 26 of which have resulted in commercial performances. These include Eat Dust by the Bad Shoes Dance Theater, Sad Mambo by Circle Theater, Black Shimmer by Flying Troupe, and There is a Hollywood in Taiwan by Crazy Opera Studio.
 
Since 2017, TPAC has been assisting in the implementation of the Exhibition Plan. This is made easier by the Creative Incubation Platform, which provides performance groups with additional resources. The 39 events presented on December 2 and 3 included 10 performance groups under this year’s Creative Festival Current Exhibition Plan, as well as three performance plans and two productions for the Taipei Children’s Art Festival, three events for the Taipei Fringe Festival, and 21 art events for the National Concert Hall, National Theater & Concert Hall (twin performing art venues at Taipei’s Liberty Square), Taichung National Theater, Taiwan Traditional Theater Center, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), and Quanta Arts Foundation.


Flying Troupe’s Huimei Suit Club uses a combination of stage lighting and object puppetry to depict Taiwan’s economic development (Photo by TPAC)​

The CIP rates productions and events for their level of development and assigns points on a scale from 1 to 5. More than two-thirds of the works presented this year were given between three and five points. The presentations showed program planners and curators from all over Taiwan programs with great potential for further development. The performance teams behind those programs are ready to perform in other venues or do other productions, which greatly reduces the pre-production tension all performance groups experience due to lack of additional talent or resources.


Legends of Ghost Island (Part I), recommended by Taichung National Opera Theater
(Photo by TPAC)

“Taiwanese art performance groups are usually pressed for time,” said Austin Wang, director of Taipei Performing Arts Center. “When they get a subsidy, they have less than a year to design the performance from top to bottom, produce it, and then perform it. There’s no way they can gather resources so as to improve performance quality.”
 
“The CIP addresses precisely this issue by tapping into the resources of various art venues and cultural bureaus around Taiwan to help artists and teams reach their maximum potential.” The CIP helps artists take part in inter-disciplinary exchanges and international cooperation and provides professional advice on how to improve artistic productions and performances.
 
A Base for Artistic Creation


Ordinary by Formosa Circus Art also received a subsidy under the Creative Festival Current Exhibition Plan (Photo from TPAC)

Ordinary by Formosa Circus Art is a CIP-supported performance that uses juggling, stunts, and dance to portray the various mental states circus performers go through in their daily lives and performances.
 
Huimei Suit Club by Flying Troupe combines stage lighting and object puppetry (or “object theater”) to tell the story of a boy from northern Taiwan against the background of the island’s economic development.
 
Taiwan-Korea Co-creation: Emblem Musical by CMUSICAL tells the story of Lin Huiyin, who belonged to a generation of highly talented women in the early years of the Republic of China.
 
Taichung National Opera Theater provided a performance group with advice on the creative focus and production of two puppet shows with musical accompaniment: Legends of Ghost Island (Part I) and Endearing Days.  
 
Taipei Performing Arts Center is intended to be an actual base for artistic creation where artists are encouraged to break through barriers by collaborating with other artistic groups on the Creation Incubating Platform.
 
By enabling such groups to perform in other venues around the island, this can give Taiwan audiences a greater variety of performances.
 
For more information:
 
0978-322-873 chris.tseng@tapc-taipei.org
0930-795-453 chiunghua.kuo@tpac-taipei.org