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Highlights


The five policy areas of cultural heritage are:
1. Community empowerment
2. Museums
3. Cultural facilities and venues
4. Taipei Railway Workshop (to be upgraded to a National Railway Museum)
5. Preservation and revitalization of old private buildings

Key Initiatives 


1. Community Building Phase III and Project for Village Cultural Development (2016–2021):

(1) Strengthen grassroots art and culture while building cultural value
(2) Promote diverse participation in innovative urban and rural development
(3) Guidance at different levels to cultivate stronger administrative momentum

2. Preparation of Museum Specialization and Environments:

By enacting museum guidance, talent building, and marketing efforts, the Ministry of Culture aims to strengthen the foundation upon with Taiwanese museums develop. The guiding focus is on the advancement of the particular characteristics of museums in pace with the community, making Taiwan into a true "island of museums," while also fostering greater exchange and cooperation with museums abroad, strengthening international participation, and boosting the visibility and influence of Taiwan in this sphere.

3. Project for Development of Museums and Local Cultural Centers:

Through the use of a streamed counseling strategy, the Ministry brings together cultural resources, strengthens local ties, and plants deeper roots in localities, while through a cross-domain value-add strategy, develops integrated collaboration platforms and conducts resource integration, facilitating the repair and reuse of existing buildings without the need for new construction. Additionally, through the invigoration of performance content and linking local residents and groups, the Ministry is able to harness community energy and develop high-quality regional cultural environments that address the needs of local residents.

4. Development of Taipei Railway Workshop (National Railway Museum)

(1) Restoration of cultural resources and environmental regeneration of the Taipei Railway Workshop, a registered national historic site

(2) Establishing resources and, through thematic research and collection policies with a comprehensive view, creating a multifaceted railway resource center

(3) Interpreting system architecture; integrating various exhibits, educational activities, and publishing plans; and presenting railway cultural heritage in a dynamic way

(4) Operational planning and public services, including museum PR, resource integration, and community liaison

5. Project for Preservation and Revitalization of Old Private Buildings:

Making older private buildings a target of subsidies, the Ministry intends to provide buildings with historical, cultural, artistic, or preservational/regenerational value constructed prior to 1971 with opportunities for renovation and repair through application for subsidies.

Global Exchanges


1. Recommending Outstanding Veteran Community Building Teams for Participation in International Activities and Planned Exchanges:

Since the 1994 launch of Taiwan's Community-Building Policy, a number of outstanding veteran community-building teams have arisen, shining brightly locally and demonstrating powerful energy. To help them extend the reach of this energy internationally and share Taiwan's community-building experience on the world stage, the Ministry actively recommends communities and individuals for participation in international conferences and forums such as the Social Enterprise World Forum. Additionally, in accordance with current government policy, the Ministry plans exchange visits and study groups to share Taiwan’s accomplishments in local culture and community-building with the international community and to train front-line cultural workers and core contractors from cities and counties nationwide.

2. Museum Exchanges:

Subsidized venues and related communities participate in international professional organizations and conferences, organize museum exhibitions, touring exhibitions, and more to promote Taiwanese culture and reach out to the world both across the Taiwan Strait and further afield to share in common cultural issues and foster cooperation and exchanges founded on equality and mutual benefit. These will additionally boost the global renown of Taiwanese museums, concretely communicate their professional performance, and, through prioritizing curated international touring exhibitions of museum collections, promote the development of localized international cooperation and internationalized local culture.

3. Taipei Railway Workshop Railway Museum Preparatory Group:

Establish a world-class railway museum and cultural heritage center: Through planned cooperation with diverse communities and linkage with Taiwan's network of railway cultural heritage, this group aims to move toward the establishment of a world-class railway museum and cultural heritage center. To promote international exchange and better market Taiwan, it will showcase the diversity of Taiwan's railway cultural heritage and, in the context of globalization, present the localized development experience underpinning Taiwan's railways.

Chinese Title:「青年村落文化行動計畫」

Official Website: http://youthgo.moc.gov.tw


Highlights

Seeing how youths have performed well in many competitions sponsored by non-government organizations in recent years, the Ministry of Culture launched the "Youth Go! Village Cultural Development Project Competition” in 2014, offering prize money of up to NT$1 million to applicants within the age range of 20 to 35.


Unlike past practices of giving subsidies directly to rural communities, the "Village Cultural Development Project” provides youths with more opportunities to bring into play their advantages and help local communities to develop diverse and innovative forms of economy by accentuating regional artistic and cultural merits.


All local residents and foreign nationals aged between 20 and 35 are eligible to participate in this competition, which is divided into three categories — promoting arts and culture, revitalizing micro industries, and establishing business matchmaking platforms to assist village cultural development.


An annualtotal of 100 available slots are offered in the contest and those who passthe review will receive a grantranging from NT$200,000 to NT$1 million to implement their projects, which is in addition to prize money of NT$100,000 each. The Ministry of Culture will also provide relevant professional advice, guidance, and resources to support and accompany the implementation of the winning projects.


Take a leap and enter the world of Taiwan's villages, indigenous tribes, and other areas where resources are scarce, for dreams are not limited by borders or nationalities. Log onto http://youthgo.moc.gov.tw today.

Highlights


Based on the concept of regional development of "local cultural living circles,” the now defunct Council for Cultural Affairs has launched a three-phase program consisting of the "Local Cultural Centers Project” and "New Hometown Community Building Project” to upgrade the quality of life by expanding and deepening community development through space consolidation and joint management by local residents.


The New Hometown Community Building Project aims to improve the cultural life within individual communities. It sponsors art and cultural activities to encourage more residents to participate in community development, so as to bring together the feelings of the community, nurture the residents' care for hometown, and then take part in public affairs. In the process the community's local culture will gradually be taken more seriously and then be preserved and innovated to form the characteristics of Taiwan's local culture.


Programs under this Project


One: Localization of community administration


In addition to public participation, the administrative staff should also have the spirit of bottom-up community building in order to satisfy the community's needs. The localization program aims at assisting local governments in training their administrative staff to handle community affairs with community needs-oriented thinking.


The Ministry of Culture also assists local governments in establishing county- and city-level community building centers to cultivate community building talents while constructing websites as a platform to share experiences and community-building information, and to carry on chronicling local history through publication and e-tools to establish a database of their community-building experiences and stories about the wisdom of their residents.


The "Taiwanese Community Interaction" website publicizes government policies regarding community building and serves as a platform for the exchange of community experiences. Community administrations can upload stories, photos, videos and other relevant documents to the website. Visitors can also read many stories about successful community-building case on the website.


Two: Development of community culture


This program assists communities in recording various forms of community participation such as video recording, publication, map of life, cultural calendar, literary record and tales of community development process. Residents are encouraged to write about their hometowns and community roots-searching records through the exchange of life experiences and collective creation of environmental art. Community theaters, where they address issues they care about through physical performances, are also established to build better interpersonal relations.


Community theaters allow residents to act out what have happened in their communities. A key element in the success of the program is collaboration between theater professionals and cultural and historical workers. Residents learn to collect historical data, perform on stage and organize theatrical activities.


One of the three culture development programs unveiled in 2008 was publication of community stories in the form of picture books. Communities with preliminary results of community building were given subsidies to publish picture books that introduce themselves. Residents were encouraged to take part in searching for topics, recording stories and drawing pictures to create books that contain their collective memories.


Three: The community innovation experiment


The program assists communities in integrate resources and results of different productions such as crafts, performances, tourism, and cultural industries. It helps communities develop their own cultural industries and in-depth cultural tours as well as train tour guides. The program promotes collaboration between communities in different regions on various issues, including respect for cultural diversity and cross-industry alliance, to develop new community building mechanism and include more groups in community participation.


One of the program goals is to "integrate industry resources that have the characteristics of local culture” and to "combine culture and industries.” The "community cultural industries” which the program aims to develop include agricultural product processing, crafts and cultural recreation, whose uniqueness comes from the participation of community residents. The New Hometown Community Building Project emphasizes the spirit and value of "research and development” and aims to form an alliance of local industries and promote collective buying as part of efforts to establish the mode of sustainable development of community cultural industries.


Expected Benefits


  • Strengthening community-building knowledge and skills of local governments and the public.
  • Establishing the "Taiwanese Community Interaction” information platform to achieve the goal of community learning and government policy exchanges.
  • Innovating community participation methods to reinforce urban community building and improve indifferent relations in urban communities.
  • Deepening local cultural connotations, strengthening the depth of cultural tourism and beginning local creative cultural industries based on the traditional spirit of community participation.