The National Center for Traditional Arts (NCFTA) under the Ministry of Culture invites 12 artisans to create and demonstrate traditional crafts at the traditional craftsmanship workshop at NCFTA Yilan Park from Feb. 15 through Dec 15. The workshop is set to offer visitors hands-on classes to create craft art pieces, interact with the artisans, and enjoy their exquisite artworks.
The artisans specialize in six different types of traditional craftworks, including lacquer artwork, bamboo weaving, divine statue decoration, tin art, traditional wood carving, and basket lacquerware .
Basket lacquerware, a handiwork combining both bamboo and lacquer crafts, is a newly added craft of the promotion project this year. The artisan starts with a batten body made from bamboo weaving, and then paints layers of raw lacquer over the surface, enhancing its versatility and durability.
The workshop is under the program "Traditional Art Successor - Cultivation of Successors of Traditional Arts (傳統藝術接班人－傳統工藝推廣計畫)," an important implementation by the Ministry of Culture that aims at cultivating successors of traditional arts. NCFTA invites artisans who have completed the program to become artisans-in-residence at NCFTA Yilan Park, in order to build a platform for nurturing practitioners of traditional craft.
NCFTA indicated that it has hosted 1,827 promotional events and attracted more than 270,000 visitors since the program commenced in 2017. Artisans also gave demonstrations at food fairs and cultural expositions, and taught elementary school students, in order to increase visibility of the traditional crafts and artisans and to promote the traditional craftsmanship.
In line with the core concept of talent cultivation, NCFTA has invited two basket lacquerware artisans to join the artisans-in-residence at NCFTA Yilan Park.
To provide a safe environment, all visitors are required to register their names, disinfect hands at the entrance to the workshop and wear a surgical mask at all times throughout the visit.
More information are available on NCFTA website and Facebook page.