The 2023 edition of the "Youth Cultural Gardens: Taiwan-Southeast Asia Grants Program for Culture Exchanges and Collaboration (青年文化園丁隊──臺灣青年至東南亞紐澳交流合作補助)" is now open for submissions. This current open call will accept submissions from now until December 16, 2022.
As part of Taiwan's New Southbound Policy for enhancing regional participation through cultural ties, the Ministry of Culture encourages youth talents to engage in international cultural exchange affairs and bring international attention to Taiwan and its experiences.
The Ministry of Culture introduced the program in 2015 and has subsidized 38 groups to conduct international and online exchange activities on Austronesian peoples, marriage equality, and digitalization of museums with projects such as field research for community development, learning together workshops, documentary production, participation in arts festivals in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, New Zealand, Australia, and more.
To attract more potential young talents, the upper limit of the age of the program has been relaxed to 45 years old (the age of remaining members is between 20 to 35 years old.) It is hoped that based on the existing foundation, the project will continue to be carried out so that the people from ASEAN, South Asia, Australia and New Zealand can learn more about Taiwan’s multicultural connotation.
MOC further stated that with the easing of border restrictions in different countries, the program encourages participating groups to gradually return to live performances and physical cultural exchanges and to integrate digital tools and online platforms to create more diverse ways of collaboration and artistic exchanges with international partners.
For more information, please visit the Ministry of Culture Award and Grand Programs website.