The Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts, scheduled to be completed in 2015, is expected to become an artistic and cultural powerhouse that will further improve the art scene of southern Taiwan, Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai said on Feb. 4.
In a culture forum attended by some 200 representatives from art groups in southern Taiwan, Lung said that Taipei's National Theater Concert Hall has played an important role in the performing arts community for three decades. However, once the Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts is completed, it is expected to shift the cultural power play.
Three major art centers in southern Taiwan - the Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts, the Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center and Taiwan Broadcasting System's southern production center - are all scheduled to be completed in 2015 and play an instrumental role in promoting local art performances.
The Ministry of Culture noted that the Ministry of Culture highly values the development of performing arts, adding that subsidies for cultural and performing groups have been raised to about NT$620 million (US$21 million) this year. The subsidies to art groups in southern Taiwan have also been bumped up from NT$83 million in 2011 to NT$140 million last year.
As a government agency in charge of allocating national cultural resources, the Ministry must try its best to narrow the gap between rural and urban areas, Lung stressed.
Lung also expressed the hope that art groups in southern Taiwan will make helpful suggestions for the Ministry to nurture cultural civil rights in their local communities.