This year not only marks the 30th anniversary of the implementation of Taiwan's public art policy, but also celebrates the amendment of "Culture and the Arts Reward and Promotion Act" and "Regulations Governing the Installation of Public Artwork." Looking forward to a more exuberant development of public art in the next three decades, we put forward the following recommendations: (1) actively use public art funds/accounts for the maintenance and management of public artworks, and keep track of their status and effectiveness; (2) enhance the experience perpetuation of local competent authorities and personnel through public art education and promotion; and (3) elevate the organizational level of competent units within the Ministry of Culture, insofar as to support and promote the implementation and development of public art from a national perspective.
Introduction
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the implementation of Taiwan's public art policy, coinciding with the amendments to the Culture and the Arts Reward and Promotion Act and the Regulations Governing the Installation of Public Artwork. This publication especially invited Professor Chu, Teh-I, Architect Huang, Chien-Ming, and Director Chen, Bi-lin to discuss their abundant experience in creating and teaching public art as well as its review mechanisms, practical implementation and regulatory research, etc., offering their reflections and suggestions on the development of public art in Taiwan over the past three decades as well as the changes and possible future directions after the amendments.
1. Management and maintenance of public artwork
Since the promulgation of the Culture and the Arts Reward and Promotion Act (originally called the Culture and the Arts Reward Act) in 1992, Taiwan has accumulated substantial public artwork, amounting to more than 5,000 pieces. In the face of such a huge number, how to properly maintain and manage public artwork in the long run has become the focus of counties and cities in recent years. Judging from the meeting minutes of review committees in counties and cities in 2020, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City, Taitung County, and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications have conducted a census on the maintenance and management of public artwork within their jurisdiction, and further tracked and reviewed the benefits of such installations and their relocation or demolition mechanisms, or requested protective measures to be in place. In the amendments to the Regulations Governing the Installation of Public Artwork, permanent artwork is required to have a ten-year plan for its maintenance and management funds, underscoring the significance of such work.
It is suggested that the maintenance and management responsibility does not just fall on implementing agencies, from the standpoint of competent authorities, county and city governments as well as review agencies should also use public art funds/dedicated accounts as a stable source of funding for the maintenance and management of artwork within their jurisdiction, and establish regular follow-up and inspection mechanisms to fulfill their responsibility of support and supervision. Looking further, if withdrawal is regarded as the inevitable final stage of public artwork, review committees in recent years have often reminded that in addition to fully communicating with the original artists to reach a consensus in advance, the relocation/demolition process should also involve the public with videos and other forms of records being stored so that the public nature of this process can be highlighted, giving new meanings to the artwork.
Going back to the inception of public art implementation, the planning for artwork maintenance and management should be in place right from the beginning. First, the installation fund for individual artwork should be clearly stated in the selection results report. The proportion of the fund allocated its subsequent maintenance and management should also be included in the evaluation. This serves as a reliable basis and at the same time shows respect for the artists and their work. On the other hand, some implementing agencies entrust agents because they are not familiar with the public art process. For projects with relatively limited funds, agent fees may crowd out the funds for artwork installation itself. It is thus recommended to set a limit on the fund scale for entrusted projects and the proportion of agent fees to ensure that there are sufficient funds for artwork installation. Furthermore, review agencies should track and review the quality of projects executed by agents on a long-term basis to avoid replicating similar styles of artwork or public participation models, which sacrifices the opportunity for different projects to develop their own features according to their respective requirements. In addition, review agencies should not equate the number of projects executed by an agent with its implementation quality.
2. Diverse use of public art funds/dedicated accounts
At present, the vast majority of county and city governments have set up public art funds/dedicated accounts (Lienchiang County has included it in the “social education and cultural facilities development fund” since 2010), which are used for the installation, training, promotion, and subsidies for public art. Since 2018, the annual has included relevant records provided by local governments and it can be found that some activities (or partially) supported by public art funds/dedicated accounts have been held regularly, some of which have even developed into nationally well-known events representative of local features. This shows that such funds/dedicated accounts have indeed supported the development of local arts and culture.
In terms of the positive and proactive use of public art funds/dedicated accounts, the first is the maintenance and management of public artwork; second, the training and promotion of public art. In addition to the promotional activities targeting the public, the focus should also be on local cultural affairs departments, implementing agencies, and relevant responsible people passing on their experience, including their complete understanding of public artwork within their jurisdiction, matters requiring attention during the actual implementation, the cooperation model between art teams and construction vendors, the communication strategy for cross-unit/organization coordination, etc. What is more, it should even include how to benefit from the professional assistance from members of the review committee and the executive task force, which should also be passed down properly during handover. As a result, civil servants will no longer be afraid of managing public art, the aesthetic competence of administrative units can be improved steadily, and implementing agencies and art teams can also build a positive partnership. Pleasant implementation experience and encouraging results not only make civil servants more confident in their ability to do a good job in public art, but also “inspire” them to have the self-expectation to do a good job in public art.
Furthermore, local cultural affairs departments can use funds/dedicated accounts for the installation of representative and quality (as opposed to quantity) artwork; the so-called “representative” refers to the quality and artistry of artwork as well as enjoyable execution experience. With sufficient funding and timeline, on the one hand, artists can fully unleash their creativity. Hence, the artistic features of the artwork can be enhanced and the artwork will in turn complement the surrounding environment; on the other hand, the use of more refined and appropriate materials and techniques can perfect the artwork to every detail and is also conducive to, and further reduces the difficulty of, its long-term maintenance and management. A more flexible administrative process frees both implementing agencies and art teams. In addition to allowing both parties to focus more on perfecting the artwork, the former will have more energy to spare for cross-unit/cross-agency communication and coordination, helping them understand and collectively participate in public art implementation; the latter can also have sufficient time to increase public interaction and social participation during the creative process, substantially accentuating the publicness and social benefits of public art resources.
Going further in discussing the review mechanism for public art funds/dedicated accounts utilization, currently the source of public art funds set up by county and city governments and agencies is more like the concept of “art tax” drawn from executive units of various projects, and it is mainly managed by the cultural affairs departments of county and city governments on their own. Review agencies are not required to review, nor be notified of, the annual revenue and how it was used. In recent years, there has been an increasing trend of not implementing public art installations but directly contributing funding to public art funds/dedicated accounts, whose amount consequently is bound to become larger and larger; it is thus recommended that the operating status of each public art fund/dedicated account should be tracked every year while keeping relevant statistics in order to monitor the overall implementation progress of public art promotion nationwide and provide timely guidance when necessary.
3. National advancement in public art aesthetics
When we raise the perspective to the national level, public art is actually one of the important elements shaping the overall Taiwanese arts and cultural environment. Encouraging the diverse development of public art, ensuring the quality of execution, and carrying out long-term maintenance of completed artwork can all provide impetus to the arts and cultural industries and enhance the overall aesthetic competence.
According to the Culture and the Arts Reward and Promotion Act and the Regulations Governing the Installation of Public Artwork amended this year, major public construction projects are also required to allocate 1% of their total cost as public art funds, whose scale and scope will increase accordingly. This is one of the few important legally-binding bases for cultural units to require all public service units across the country to jointly promote arts and culture as well as enhance environmental aesthetics. From the perspective of “administrative culturalization”, it is of great significance. In order to assist each unit to truly implement and promote public art, more guidance, counseling and administrative resources should be offered. However, for such a major undertaking, it is suggested that the responsible authority in the organization should be raised to a corresponding level, so that missions and tasks can become clearer and more concrete and a solid foundation can be built for cross-unit/cross-agency coordination and integration. This ensures that guidance on public art installation is properly offered and the subsequent maintenance and management are continuously supervised. Drawing on the perspective and experience of “cultural assets”, a nationwide archiving and monitoring mechanism for public artwork should be further established. In addition to the regular assessment of the quality of public art execution and the long-term supervision of the status and benefits of artwork maintenance and management, it is also necessary to optimize and revitalize existing public artwork, organize educational and promotional activities with cross-disciplinary/cross-regional resources, and even lay down a public art withdrawal guideline at the national level.
In addition to the organizational structure, the biannual Public Art Awards act as a reward mechanism, offering positive encouragement. Besides the existing awards for creativity, environmental integration, public participation, education promotion, etc., implementing agencies or management units with excellent performance in artwork maintenance and management should also be rewarded and commended. Furthermore, during the execution of public art installation, along with implementing agencies and art teams, executive task force members also exert their influence on the artwork and urban landscape; awards should thus be given to recognize their professionalism as well.
4. Concluding remarks
To sum up, for Taiwan’s public art to improve qualitatively, implementing the maintenance and management as well as long-term tracking and inspection of public artwork, harnessing funds/dedicated accounts to strengthen the passing down of execution experience and the installation of excellent artwork, and promoting the aesthetics of public art in Taiwan at the national level are all important tasks that must be addressed properly at the moment with swift action taken.
This year, amendments were made to the Culture and the Arts Reward and Promotion Act and the Regulations Governing the Installation of Public Artwork. As the legal system for arts and cultural governance is complete, it is expected to see vigorous and vibrant public art development, contributing to the advancement in the arts and cultural environment as well as the overall aesthetic competence in Taiwan.