Stories of Curators: Examining the Taiwan Curatorial Ecosystem in 2004-2021 Through NCAF Curatorial Grants

"In Taiwan, curating is a fashion", said Jo Hsiao, a senior curator of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) during an interview at the end of 2021. However, she also pointed out that "the term 'in-house curator' can sometimes be derogatory".〔1〕Anita Hsiang-Ning Huang, former senior specialist of the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (MoCA Taipei), said in the same interview, "in-house curators are the property of their organizations".〔2〕In-house curators might not be considered the authors of their works or thought of as "fashionable" because independent curators are favored in Taiwan. The chief editor of the art media ARTouch, Yu-Yin Chang (2020), also described her personal experience: She always finds curators who work both independently and for an organization take out, for exchange, their business cards with the title 'independent curator' instead of those indicating their organizations.〔3〕Curator Pei-Yi Lu (2015) pointed out the cause of this phenomenon: TFAM's 1992 invitation to art critic Hai-Ming Huang to curate the exhibition Dis/ Continuity: Religion, Shamanism, and Nature as "Responsible Art Criticism & Planning". This can be seen as the beginning of contemporary curatorial practice in Taiwan. A model of work division to outsource the curatorial work was formed back then, i.e., the external curator provided the concepts and discourse of the exhibition, while the museum was responsible for the administrative tasks. This model has since influenced Taiwan's exhibition making for more than 20 years, causing the term "curator" in Taiwan to mean exclusively "independent curator" and not "in-house curator".〔4〕

In Taiwan, the grant 'Curatorial Practice in Exhibitions Project' launched by The National Culture and Arts Foundation (NCAF) in 2004 has played a critical part in nurturing curators and independent curators. This grant, now named 'Production Grants to Independent Curators in Visual Arts' (PGICVA), along with the 'Curator's Incubator Program @ Museums' launched in 2010, has greatly contributed to Taiwan's (independent) curators. When PGICVA began, however, careers of independent curators were already problem-plagued. "In the ecosystem of Taiwan's art world,” as curator Chia-Chi Jason Wang disclosed, "the 'independent curator' is actually little more than a name, a 'career’ with little room to develop substantially." The reason for this has been a severe lack of resources and opportunities for independent curators, which hinders them from securing necessary funds for their work. "All the circumstances for independent curators are perilous, such as professional space, certainty for the future, financial return, later training, idea and skill development, etc.", said Chia-Chi Jason Wang frankly. This is exactly why, as Wang concludes, Taiwan is unable to nurture curators who are truly active in the international art world.〔5〕 

This article was written upon the invitation of NCAF to do research on its curatorial grants. There was no expected outcome when I began the research. The brief description of the current state and development of curatorial practice in Taiwan above was added after the research was finished, as reference. The three grants provided by NCAF—PGICVA, Curator's Incubator Program @ Museums, and Regular Grants for Visual Arts Exhibition Projects—are important resources that curators in Taiwan can seek to obtain. These grants not only shape the overall exhibition landscape of Taiwan, but also influence the curatorial ecosystem. In this small research, I chose a sample of ten curators who received NCAF grants and conducted interviews with them. By describing their views on their past and future, I hope to put together a picture of the curatorial ecosystem of Taiwan.

Collecting the Career Stories of Ten Grantee Curators

The career stories that follow are collected from ten curators, nine of whom received PGICVA. Ordered based on the number of times they have received the grant, they are:

Recipients of the grant multiple times: Independent curator Sandy Hsiu-Chih Lo, artist-curator Shang-Lin Wu, and Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai, who used to be an independent curator and is now the director of the Chiayi Art Museum;
Recipients of the grant twice: Senior curator Hai-Ming Huang and current assistant curator of the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA) Yen-Hsiang Fang;
Recipients of the grant once: Senior artist-curator Chun-Hao Chen (who currently focuses on making art and no longer curates), high school teacher Yi-Fang Chen (who currently does not curate), and Chia-Wei Hsu, an artist-curator who mainly focuses on making art;
Recipient of the grant for residential research once: Youth curator Yi-Cheng Sun.

Lastly, for reference, the curator who only applied for a regular grant is artist, art critic, and curator Shing-You Liou. These curators were chosen as samples for the following reasons:

Since PGICVA is the largest funding package, in terms of funds, it is probably the most influential to curators. Therefore, the subject of this research is such grant. Curators who have received the grant over the years can be categorized into two types, multiple-time grantees and one-time grantees. As of the beginning of 2021, names that only appeared once in the list of PGICVA recipients are as follows:

2004: Jun-Jieh Wang, Wen-Hao Huang, Chien-Hui Kao, Su-Chen Hsu, Ming-Te Lu, Sin-Pi Chang, Wei-li Yeh, Manray Hsu, Chih-Cheng Chen, Po-Chun Liu;
2005: Hooi-Wah Suan, Elsa Hsiang-Chun Chen, Pin-Hua Wang (and Hai-Ming Huang);
2007: Chun-Hao Chen, Rita Yuan-chien Chang;
2008: Hong-John Lin, Yi-Fang Chen (Incubator Program);
2009: Kai-Huang Chen, Yun-Ping Chien;
2011: Chia-Ming Yeh;
2012: Chin-Ming Lee (and Brian Kennedy), Chia-Wei Hsu, Jian-Yu Xu, Shih-Tung Lo;
2016: Sun-Quan Huang;
2017: Szu-Hsien Li;
2018: Nakaw Putun.

Multiple-time PGICVA recipients are as follows:

Amy Huei-Hwa Cheng 2005; 2008 (Incubator Program); 2010; 2012 (w/ Jeph Lo and Tung-Hung Ho); 2014＊; 2015＊＊; 2018
Sandy Hsiu-Chih Lo 2005; 2015＊; 2016＊＊
Chien-Hung Huang 2008; 2010; 2013＊; 2014＊＊; 2017; 2019
Meiya Cheng 2008 (Incubator Program); 2014＊; 2015＊＊；
Dar-Kuen Wu 2009; 2012＊; 2013＊＊
Mali Wu 2010; 2012＊; 2013＊＊
NicoleYi-Hsin Lai 2013＊; 2017＊; 2018＊＊
Shang-Lin Wu 2013＊; 2014＊＊; 2016＊; 2017＊＊; 2019＊

It is worth mentioning that starting in 2012, to further the development of international curatorial practice, PGICVA was split into two phases. The first phase of the grant is for residential research (indicated by ＊), and if the following year the curatorial project receives the grant again, the second phase is for exhibition and exchange (indicated by ＊＊).〔6〕If a curator received the grant for both phases, this counts as having received the grant twice.

From the list above, one can observe preliminarily that most curators who received the grant multiple times have already established an identifiable presence in the art world as curators, while those who received the grant once possess various backgrounds: Some are already famous curators, famous art critics, and famous artists, while others are no longer active in the art world and had to be tracked down. From the perspective of nurturing and investing in curators, is it a pity that these curators were not able to continue developing their curatorial career? Or, should we deem it fortunate that they deviated from a typical career and, because of their adventurous spirit, brought diversity to Taiwan's curatorial practice?

Furthermore, some other curators did not receive the grant multiple times, but did receive PGICVA twice (including the author). Their thoughts on a curatorial career are also intriguing.

Hai-Ming Huang 2005 (and Pin-Hua Wang); 2007
Esther Lu 2007; 2017＊
Pei-Kuei Tsai 2011 (and Kuo-Chang Liu)；2018
Zoe Chia-Jung Yeh 2012＊; 2013＊＊
Hung-Yi Chen 2013＊; 2014＊＊
Shan-Shan Huang 2014＊; 2015＊＊
Yen-Hsiang Fang 2015＊; 2016＊＊
Hsiang-Wen Chen 2016＊; 2017＊＊
I-Wen Chang 2018＊; 2019＊＊
Nobuo Takamori 2018＊; 2019＊＊

Nobuo Takamori and I-Wen Chang both received the grant for residential research in 2018 and the grant for exhibition and exchange in 2019. Due to the temporal proximity, it is impossible to know what accomplishments will result from the grants as of yet. As for other curators, they might have had other careers, other available resources, or other reasons why they did not make other achievements on the basis of PGICVA. Some of these curators are in-house curators or administrators in art organizations, such as Shan-Shan Huang, who joined the Jut Group in 2010 and has worked there since. Some joined an art organization later or at the same time, such as Yen-Hsiang Fang, who joined KMFA as an assistant curator at the beginning of 2018; Hsiang-Wen Chen, who became the art director of the Digital Art Center, Taipei (DAC) in 2018; and Esther Lu, who served as the director of the Taipei Contemporary Art Center (TCAC) from 2015 to 2017. Some began teaching in universities later or at the same time, such as Hai-Ming Huang, Hung-Yi Chen, and the author.

Last of all, the curators who, to date, have received PGICVA for residential research once are:

Chialin Chou 2013＊
Yi-Cheng Sun 2016＊
Yi-Chun Chen 2016＊
Jow-Jiun Gong 2016＊
Ya-Hsiang Yang 2017＊
Fang-Tze Hsu 2018＊
Jia-Zhen Tsai 2019＊

Yi-Cheng Sun later received Regular Grants for Visual Arts Exhibition Projects in the first half of 2017, and Jia-Zhen Tsai's residential research was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, curators such as Chialin Chou, Yi-Chun Chen, Jow-Jiun Gong, Ya-Hsiang Yang, and Fang-Tze Hsu did not receive further NCAF grants after their residential research. This may be because they were not ready to apply for the exhibition grant yet, or because they had other resources, opportunities, and/or jobs. For example, although Jow-Jiun Gong executed his residential research project Zomia: Investigation of Folk Religion and Contemporary Art in 2016, he was commissioned by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Tainan City Government to work on the project Kau-Puê, Mutual Companionship In Near Future: 2017 Soulangh International Contemporary Art Festival, and was too busy to apply to curate an exhibition.〔7〕

On the other hand, the curators who received PGICVA, Curator's Incubator Program @ Museums, or Regular Grants for Visual Arts Exhibition Projects can be roughly separated into two categories: curators and artist-curators. The former are renowned as theorists or professional curators, while the latter are also active artists and may possess different skills or ways of thinking. At a glance, it is no surprise that there are more "curators" in the list of those who received PGICVA, especially among those who received the grant multiple times, such as Amy Huei-Hwa Cheng, Sandy Hsiu-Chih Lo, Chien-Hung Huang, Meiya Cheng, and Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai, all of whom are famous professional curators or theorists in their own right. However, there are also distinguished "artist-curators" among them, like Mali Wu and Shang-Lin Wu. In particular, Shang-Lin Wu has regularly received grants for residential research and exhibition and exchange every three years starting from 2013. Due to the pandemic, Shang-Lin Wu was forced to postpone the residential research project that he received a grant for in 2019. If he receives an exhibition grant in the future, he will have completed three complete turnarounds, two phases each, of PGICVA, and can be said to be an artist-curator nurtured by NCAF PGICVA.

Independent curator Shang-Lin Wu 

In contrast, initial counting shows many artist-curators in the list of Regular Grants for Visual Arts Exhibition Projects recipients from 2017 to 2019; among the 22 curators (including individuals and teams), there are approximately 10 "artist-curators".〔8〕It is not hard to understand that, for artists who want to try curating or develop a career in curating, applying for regular grants for exhibitions is a lot easier, with lower barriers to entry, more opportunities, and more flexibility in the scale of the project.

In the categories mentioned above, I chose ten recipients of NCAF grants as samples to interview and collect first-hand material on their curatorial practice, career development, their understanding of NCAF PGICVA, and its influence on their careers. The chosen interviewees are as follows:

Recipients of the grant multiple times:
Sandy Hsiu-Chih Lo (independent curator)
Shang-Lin Wu (artist-curator)
Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai (current director of the Chiayi Art Museum)
Recipients of the grant twice:
Hai-Ming Huang (senior curator, retired university professor)
Yen-Hsiang Fang (assistant curator of KMFA, will go on an arts residency in France soon)
Recipients of the grant once:
Yi-Fang Chen (continues to teach in high school, is no longer curating)
Chun-Hao Chen (artist-curator, is no longer curating)
Chia-Wei Hsu (artist-curator, mainly focuses on making art)
Recipients of residential research grants once:
Yi-Cheng Sun (youth curator)
Recipients of regular grants only:
Shing-You Liou (although he actively applied for grants, he did not try to apply for PGICVA or the Incubator Program)

The interview is half structural. The questions below are merely an invitation for the interviewees to freely express themselves.

1. Do you think of curating as your career? If so, when did you begin to think that way? How did the NCAF grants influence you?
2. What support was available in the ecosystem of Taiwan's art world? How do you imagine the future?
3. Describe the exhibition that you want to curate the most. Who will come to the exhibition?
    

Where the Ten Stories Connect

Due to the pandemic, in-person interviews were moved online. After talking to each interviewee, the following are a collection of the notions, aspirations, and journeys of their curating career. Together, they piece together a picture of Taiwan's current curatorial ecosystem: NCAF grants are more or less considered effective; organizations are no longer seen as the antithesis of the avant-garde, but instead enable curators to further their careers; the state of independent curating is unclear and its development is difficult; and curating career problems are caused by the whole ecosystem. The details are as follows.

NCAF grants are more or less considered effective

When asked if NCAF grants provided any support to their curating careers, interviewees mostly responded positively. Shang-Lin Wu expressed his gratitude: "NCAF has stood by my side and given me a lot of support. If it were not for NCAF, there were many times I almost would have taken a day job." Speaking from his experience, Chia-Wei Hsu felt that NCAF grants were very influential. With the Curator's Incubator Program and PGICVA, the mechanism is quite comprehensive; senior curators who had already gotten started in their careers were offered opportunities to apply for larger grants to curate large scale exhibitions, and younger curators had opportunities to grow. Matching curators with museums was helpful for curators to gain practical experience as well.

Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai also emphasized the significance of support provided to her by NCAF and how the Curator's Incubator Program facilitated her cooperation with museums. Since partner organizations of NCAF are well-functioning and stable organizations with relatively large spaces for exhibition, they can provide resources for curators to execute their ideas to certain extent. The Incubator Program nurtures young curators by giving them the opportunity to plan a complete, large scale exhibition, and the chance to understand, learn, and integrate into an organization. On the other hand, this mechanism also enables organizations to interact with curators. At the time, because of her chosen subject, Lai chose to hold her exhibition Shattered Sanctity only in MoCA Taipei, and prepared the exhibition according to the museum's environment. While working with MoCA Taipei, she observed how a museum operates. Since she had to work within this system to hold the exhibition, plan schedules, communicate with artists, and organize education and training, her work became better organized. This experience led to another exhibition she curated at MoCA Taipei, Living Sound—Expanding the Extramusical. Because of the Incubator Program, she was able to work with MoCA Taipei, which was greatly beneficial to her professional experience on curatorship.

Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai, who used to be an independent curator and is now the director of the Chiayi Art Museum

Yen-Hsiang Fang also felt that NCAF PGICVA or the Incubator Program facilitated the development of his curatorial career. These grants are provided on a case-by-case basis and can help young curators concentrate on their projects and think more thoroughly and carefully. Curators are also able to get to know people and venues related to their chosen subject and grow in their understanding of art. He thinks that although curators in Taiwan can look for support from private institutions and are familiar with government grants, if they want to curate middle to large scale exhibitions, relying on NCAF PGICVA is a must. NCAF focuses more on multinational exhibitions and the funding suffices to support international exchanges.

Sandy Hsiu-Chih Lo voiced the same ideas as Fang; NCAF's support enabled her to "do international flights". She received a grant for her residential research in 2015-2016 to prepare for the exhibition Topography of Mirror Cities, which was to be held within three years. Next, she executed Topography of Mirror Cities in 2018, and the funds were completely provided by NCAF. Since this was a huge project and involved many countries, NCAF provided the largest funding available, though every participating city of each country also actively sought out many sponsorship resources on their own, creating strong momentum. Lo gained a lot from this process by learning from her international partners and following their examples. They had discussions and exchanged thoughts on curating and on actualizing their ideas in spaces and in society.

Independent curator Sandy Hsiu-Chih Lo (Fourth from the right in the second row)

The youngest curator, Yi-Cheng Sun, also said that NCAF's grant was very helpful. The year she earned her master's degree, she successively finished her thesis, completed residential research, and began working at The Cube—a great deal of work for one year. For residential research, NCAF's grant enabled her to spend three months in Europe and do research on how knowledge is produced in communities, workshops, and the academic world. Before she left for Europe, professor Jau-Lan Guo recommended her to The Cube, where she began a part-time job and participated in the projects Soundtraces and Towards Mysterious Realities. After her residential research ended in the summer of 2017, Yi-Cheng Sun became a full-time employee of The Cube. "A three-month grant provided for me for three years", she described. During her residential research in Amsterdam, Berlin and other places, she visited organizations and wrote work logs on the same day or on the following day to document the observations and questions that came to her mind during her residency. These observations continued to nurture her for the next three years, and some questions were subsequently answered. However, she made fun of herself by saying that she must have gotten it wrong because all the other curators were making connections and looking for institutions to work with; perhaps this was why the following year (2018) she was not able to propose a very comprehensive multinational exhibition project. Nevertheless, she did curate exhibitions centered on community research and inter-disciplinary art education later on: Unit of Interdependency and The Process of Knowledge. She received regular grants after her residential research and held these exhibitions in the next two years (2018 and 2019, respectively). In the third year (2020), she curated Artificial Unit as a follow up of Unit of Interdependency and put her knowledge in biology to good use. During this time, she also managed a community of self-taught curators named "A Self-Taught Group". Yi-Cheng Sun concluded that these actions were all a result of NCAF's grant, which gave her enough space to slowly find her own methodology. She described herself as "a graduate in all aspects. If it weren't for those experiences, I wouldn't have found out how far my pendulum could swing".

ARTIFICIAL UNIT (2020 Visual Arts Grants program), curated by Yi-Cheng Sun and exhibited at TheCube Project Space

Chun-Hao Chen, who has a great deal of experience curating in organizations and independently, views the NCAF grants as a sort of award and competition in the Taiwanese art world. He believes that this competition will gain importance by the day, and can provide resources for young curators who are ambitious and have a desire to create, enabling them to actualize their ideas. "Most of those who are the 'Pride of Taiwan' in the international art world were supported by NCAF grants", he observed. He also bluntly said that NCAF grants were very important; the more the funding, the better. "The larger the resources, the larger the scale, the larger the investment returns". This applies to both artists and curators, who can practice their craft by conceiving discourses and making proposals. Other than resources, the diffusion effect can also help artists fully express themselves. There must be supporting resources if Taiwanese contemporary art is to be energetic, diverse, and innovative. If NCAF's resources are continuous and stable, then artists and curators can implement their plans—the art world and its accomplishments rely on NCAF's resources as a great perpetuating force for Taiwan's contemporary art.

Other than the doubtless affirmations and gratitude towards NCAF grants described above, there are also other special circumstances: Hai-Ming Huang, who is the most senior curator, did not actually lack funds. Before receiving the grant, he was already a famous curator and had plenty of "opportunities to practice", in his words. The two times he applied for NCAF PGICVA were favors for others, so he actually had limited freedom when working. In the case of the exhibition which received PGICVA in 2005, Empty Fields—A dialogue between contemporary art and contemporary philosophy, he was invited to work together on the exhibition by curator Pin-Hua Wang, but their curatorial ideas differed from each other. To Hai-Ming Huang, "The goal of an exhibition is not to find a way to present a clear-cut issue with art, but to take a matter on which there already is a consensus and focus instead on what has been neglected and what should be changed". In the case of the exhibition which received PGICVA in 2008, Eternal Adventureland, he was invited by Shin Leh Yuan Art Space to curate this exhibition for their 10th year anniversary. In his opinion, that exhibition was curated in service of the members of Shin Leh Yuan Art Space, and there was no room for the curator's personal vision.

Additionally, even though younger curator Shing-You Liou actively pursued his curating career and applied for various grants, he never applied for the Curator's Incubator Program or PGICVA because, according to his observations, the jurors are partial to a certain type of project. Yi-Fang Chen, who received the Curator's Incubator Program grant in 2008 with Jam: Cultural Congestions in Contemporary Asian Art, was also slightly reserved about its influence. On a positive note, she acknowledged that NCAF's grant supported her financially, certainly giving her ample funds to implement her plans, especially to visit artists. Also, since NCAF is a government institution with credibility, she could carry out her project more smoothly. However, thinking back, she felt that the grant was relatively superfluous: She was studying in the United Kingdom and doing an internship at the South Hill Park Arts Centre when she received the Curator's Incubator Program grant. Everything necessary for the exhibition, such as the venue and all personnel, was ready, and the Arts Centre's visual art department was very supportive as well. NCAF's acceptance of the project was only the next logical step.

Organizations are no longer the antithesis of the avant-garde, but instead enable curators to further their careers

According to this research’s observations and categorization of the curating ecosystem, the most important development is the emergence of new expectations towards in-house curating. Organizations are no longer seen as a "white cube" or a rigid system:

Yen-Hsiang Fang, who is currently an assistant curator of KMFA, said he had not worked with organizations before, but realized after joining KMFA that perhaps the curator's role and energy were not substantial enough, resulting in a misconception that the "ceiling" situation was inevitable for all curators. What Fang meant by "ceiling" was that curators have to apply for grants many times to actualize their ideas, like Amy Huei-Hwa Cheng. However, he now realized that there may be other ways yet to be discovered and develop. Whether within or outside a system, there is still a good deal that can be done. The art world needs people from different fields to engage in dialog and diligent people to make things work. Curators are like these diligent people; their work is not restricted to holding exhibitions in museums. He thinks that although certain strategies are expected or required for exhibitions in organizations, this is not a restriction. For example, the exhibition he curated at KMFA, From Object to Cosmos, had a prerequisite: He was to start off from the artworks in the museum's collection. This may seem like a restriction, but since in the past, KMFA's artworks were rarely exhibited from a "non-human" point of view, Fang tried to find a "non-human" starting point for discussion among collected pieces and attempted to break free from the pathway set in the historical context dominated by local consciousness. By this method of "finding a point of departure in artworks", Fang developed his own discourse from the collection of existing works. He imagines that there can still be new possibilities for exhibitions that are curated from museum collections and new frameworks can spring up therefrom.

Yen-Hsiang Fang, who is now assistant curator of the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts

Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai believes that the exhibitions she has curated in the Chiayi Art Museum, like Man Who Captured the Landscape—Photography and Revisit of Fang Ching-Mian, are already quite close to the ideal exhibition she has had in mind. In other words, she is able to materialize exhibitions she likes in organizations: This exhibition was built according to the will of the Chiayi Art Museum team; the planning process was long, external professionals were invited to work with the museum team, and every available resource was used. With the organization's resources, artworks for exhibitions can be produced by commissioned artists or artists-in-residence. After deciding on a subject, direction, or research topic, artists gather to respond to the same theme in their own ways. Conversations of various space-times are connected in one place and multiple layers of understanding are created. This is museum curating, a form of curating that is more often used abroad. When Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai first came to the Chiayi Art Museum, her past identity and career as an independent curator did not limit what she could bring to the museum or how she could further her career. Now, she feels that her experience with the Chiayi Art Museum has become an important part of her career trajectory, and it would be great if she could use this experience to help other museums. In conclusion, even though in local museums and organizations, two thirds of the time is not spent on art but on dealing with administrative tasks, the system, human resources, and even local politics, she is no longer averse to working in organizations.

Chia-Wei Hsu's advice to young curators in Taiwan is precisely to consider curating in a museum. He discovered that young curators sometimes have misconceptions about curating, thinking that curating is only looking for artworks, coming up with concepts, and writing essays. Actually, curators need to work with artists over a long period of time, pay attention to numerous details, and consider how to gather artworks and present them in a powerful manner, which is time-consuming, painstaking work. There should be a more substantial, productive aspect to curating, and it can only be continuously and systematically developed in organizations. Hsu commented that "Nowadays, there are too many independent curators; the bar is set too low. If you want to become more professional, join an organization and understand their work system. There, everything interlocks." He also pointed out that world-class curators are actually not independent curators, but in-house curators. In-house curators can connect the artworks in the collection to education, so that art doesn't stop with one-time exhibitions. For example, the Centre Pompidou has a "project-based" management concept—each in-house curator specializes in different subjects and is also responsible for the research, analysis, and collection of art pieces, so work is suitably divided.

The state of independent curating is unclear and its development is difficult

While in-house curating is transforming and has a bright future, the development of independent curating is difficult and its future is unclear. Ever since curating rose in Taiwan, the art world has valued independent curators, and like Chia-Wei Hsu said, NCAF has invested a great deal of resources in nurturing independent curators. However, the larger problem is that with Taiwan's resources, it is not difficult to curate a good exhibition, but a single exhibition is not enough; systematic development is necessary and it is more pressing to find ways of continuation. In-house curators are crucial to this task. Organizations have stable curating teams, and with the organization as backup, continuation and further exploration are made possible. Continuation is difficult for independent curators, who need to start anew with every exhibition. This is certainly their biggest problem.

• Typical Cases of Independence
   

Here we should first clarify, what is an "independent curator"? Who is considered to be an "independent curator"? Among the curators who were interviewed, Amy Huei-Hwa Cheng, Nobuo Takamori, and River Lin were chosen as typical cases. In particular, Cheng was often mentioned in the interviews mentioned above. Curators such as Yen-Hsiang Fang, Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai, and Shang-Lin Wu all look up to her as a model independent curator, and Hai-Ming Huang even praised her by saying, "Huei-Hwa Cheng is an outstanding figure". He said that
Curating has one prerequisite: To be a curator, you have to teach at universities or run an art space, and continue to push your research forward, so as to ensure that the conferences or international exchange events you hold will be popular. Over such a long course of time, Cheng accumulated enough material and, naturally, her career has been able to reach this height. For example, working on Altering Nativism allowed her to gather experience for her to become a top curator. She prepared for curating every day, or else she would only have combined existing material.

Cheng even represents the "ceiling" that curators aim for in their careers, as Yen-Hsiang Fang described above. Also, Fang believes that Cheng demonstrated how to enter a new career stage with the help of curatorial grants: She established her own system within the PGICVA mechanism and accumulated experience to her benefit, while others may have had to face and solve isolated issues with each new exhibition. Shang-Lin Wu used Cheng as an example to describe the trials and tribulations of independent curating as a long-term career: She had to manage an art space and rely on sponsors to maintain stable finances. Also, Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai and Yen-Hsiang Fang both mentioned how rare and difficult it is to acquire Cheng's international exhibition experience. As an independent curator, Amy Huei-Hwa Cheng represents a certain pinnacle of curating. The times in which she rose were an era full of opportunity.

Independent curator Amy Huei-Hwa Cheng (second from the right)

Yi-Cheng Sun, who belongs to a younger generation, is free of these constraints. She said, "I don't have any curator models in mind because there should be more possibilities in this world". Though Cheng is thought of as an emblematic independent curator by others, she serves only as an encouragement for Sun. Sun once worked as a full-time employee of The Cube, which is operated by Cheng. She believes that nowadays, independent curators are "independent" in the sense that in the art ecosystem, they are relatively autonomous from the government agenda, and this can be achieved with time, in slow steps. For example, 2020 was the tenth anniversary of The Cube. It has been accomplishing its goals at a slow and steady pace, in increments of five and ten years (also, the staff have the ability to wear many hats and perform any duty necessary on their own). But if one wants to be independent of any group, it is even more challenging. She thinks that only when she began curating exhibitions outside of the art world did she start to consider what "independent" meant, including its challenges, costs, blind spots, and value.

Nobuo Takamori and River Lin were mentioned by Shing-You Liou. Liou thinks that curators have a certain "image" that is separate from whether their viewpoint is interesting or not. For him, an ideal independent curator is Nobuo Takamori, who planned the Asian Art Biennial in 2021. Though they are the same age, Liou finds him to be profound and unfathomable, possessing a global perspective and a wider historical framework and world view. In comparison, Liou is a different type of curator, seemingly belonging to a different universe. His work is Taiwanese, local, and personal. Additionally, River Lin, who makes curating a performance, also seems like an independent curator to him.

• Difficulties of Independence
   

Independent curating is not easy. Among the ten curators who were interviewed, many mentioned the difficulties of independent curating. Liou bluntly said that making a living as an independent curator was never an option for him. In Taiwan, independent curators are more like freelancers. If one wants to live by curating independently, one might have to curate exhibitions that are conceptually less independent and avant-garde.

Chun-Hao Chen also believes that though curators are professionals, Taiwan lacks the necessary ecosystem to support them. The current environment is disadvantageous to young curators who work independently; it is not robust enough to keep them alive. It might be easier to work as a curator in a government organization, like TFAM or the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA). Purely working as a curator is like purely being an artist—it is too difficult and exhausting. He recommends being practical. Looking for a job (such as teaching in a school) and curating at the same time can provide a stable income and help gain promotions. One can learn by teaching as well.

Shang-Lin Wu has similar opinions. He thinks that the identity of the independent curator is quite paradoxical, with no clear career path ahead, perhaps because the art industry is still mainly supported by government resources. Taiwan is still fortunate compared to Southeast Asia, but independent curating as a long-term career is still quite difficult. He observed that there were relatively less independent curators in his era (he was born in the 1970s). Taiwan has been holding art festivals regularly and building tons of art museums in recent times, so visual arts funding has been increasing, driving the demand for art administrators. Judging from the transformation of the environment, it became easier to work as an independent curator after the 1980s, and curators have been able to reach their goals more quickly.to reach their goals more quickly.

About the career trajectory of a younger generation of curators, Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai, who began as an independent curator, thinks that more time is needed for observation. As for her own generation, she frankly said that she even felt once that she "couldn't see where she could go". When referencing Amy Huei-Hwa Cheng's career, Lai noticed that Cheng's circumstances were propelled by huge international experiences such as art biennials and their connections with Taiwan, but there weren't such opportunities in her era. Lai's development was mainly sustained by NCAF grants and the fostering and cooperation between alternative spaces. Before entering the Chiayi Art Museum, she spent one to two years feeling lost. Tired from seven to eight years of independent curatorial work, how could she utilize resources to actualize her ideas? At that time, she found no joy in working on local government projects because she felt that they were not considering what a curator could bring to the table. Since the curator didn't understand what the government wanted either, one had no idea how to respond to them. Lai couldn't help but worry. When looking at the careers of other curators in Taiwan, she realized most of them taught in schools or worked as curators in museums. There were very few curators who managed to work independently at a large scale; the best example was only Amy Huei-Hwa Cheng. Under this situation, before entering the Chiayi Art Museum, she felt anxious about whether she would be able to create a new career path.

Hai-Ming Huang's experience and opinion are slightly different. He believes that there are still many opportunities for curating. When he taught in the National Taipei University of Education, he founded the Department of Cultural and Creative Industries Management and served as the first department chair. From the viewpoint of the industry, and as a curator who has curated many outdoor installations, he has many expectations for the role of the curator. For instance, many government activities are executed by small exhibition design companies. These companies are quite knowledgeable about curating and adept at finding remarkable performers or artists on the market. They can execute projects quickly and beautifully, but all the results end up being more or less the same. If the client expects projects that are high-end, unique, and have cultural depth, these companies or studios will not meet their needs, yet this sort of projects are actually in high demand. In the past, when the Department of Cultural and Creative Industries Management was first established, Hai-Ming Huang assiduously taught his students the concepts of curating. With street art and festival art as subjects, they began by doing research on the historical background, social background, and street sceneries of a locality, then went on to develop related stands, displays, music, and performances, shaping the aesthetics of the whole street and finding various individuals and teams to work with. This made them familiar with the meticulous planning of events. Students then had the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice on Guling Street, starting from the planning stage to setting up the exhibition on-site. When they graduated, many joined event planning companies or studios. To Hai-Ming Huang, this sort of planning is of the same essence as curating.

Curating career problems are caused by the whole ecosystem

From the above, we can see the difficulties of pursuing an independent curating career in Taiwan, and from the opinions of the interviewees, it is obvious that this is a problem of the whole art ecosystem. Shang-Lin Wu, who is also an artist and has received NCAF grants multiple times, noted that many people rely on bidding on projects to make a living, but the scale of these projects has only become larger in recent years, with the emergence of public art or art festivals, for instance. It is still difficult to support oneself just with these projects. Even though it is difficult, he still hopes that there are independent curators who can curate exhibitions and fill up their spare time by writing articles, teaching part-time, and working on freelance projects as artists. The pandemic has posed a larger problem for curating these two years, especially for curators like him, whose work is mainly international. He received NCAF's grant for residential research at the end of December 2019. The pandemic broke out in the beginning of the following year and he has been unable to carry out his plans, only postpone and wait. Even if he were to move his exhibition plans back to Taiwan, it would be tough.

When asked if he ever imagined he could make money by curating, Shang-Lin Wu chuckled and said, "Then I wouldn't work on contemporary art, I'd just do special exhibitions. Taiwan lacks the mechanisms for people to make money by curating. Viewers in Taiwan haven't reached the point where going to exhibitions is part of everyday spending, like in some culturally developed countries." He once considered working on commercial exhibitions, but this did not work out. Commercial exhibitions are mainly in the charge of bidding companies, and their operating model and goals are very different. For them, the point is rather "How do I manage this company?" and "How can I take care of my employees?", which is completely different from his desire to curate an exhibition. He believes that in a healthy art ecosystem, there should be separate systems for academia and businesses. Artists, along with other roles, should have their suitable place in the art ecosystem. Currently, there are businessmen (the industry), officials (the government), and academics (universities), but creators (artists) belong to none of these circles and are marginalized. For now, artists survive more easily if they possess an academic background.

Among the curators who were interviewed, Shing-You Liou's story is especially worth noting. He applied for NCAF's regular grants since 2012—when Liou began studying in the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts—up until 2020. After nine years of applying, he learned that if he applies as an individual, he will not get the grant. Even though he received the grant twice as part of a curating team (love thy neighbor as thyself as XIANG ER in 2016 and Mr. River's Compulsive Hoarding Disorder as Walking Grass Agriculture in 2019), since he did not receive these personally, he does not count these as his achievements. These years, he has somehow felt that if he applied for the grant directly with a project clearly of his style, not only would he not receive the grant, but also leave a bad impression. Meanwhile, outside of the art world, his applications for grants have been quite successful.

Shing-You Liou has worked very hard in the art world, but he never applied for PGICVA or the Curator's Incubator Program because he realized that these two programs represent a certain "orthodoxy" or "model" different from his pathway, and have nothing to do with the quality of the subject-matter or the curator's viewpoint. On the other hand, another difficulty was that the museums in the Incubator Program were distant from him, both physically and mentally (this interview was conducted in 2021, before the Chiayi Art Museum joined the Incubator Program).〔9〕Having observed the grants given out by NCAF each year, he noticed that NCAF has a multifaceted idea of the artist, but a one-dimensional idea of the curator, so grants and projects for more types of curators have not been developed yet. Judging from the curators and the exhibitions that received NCAF PGICVA and those that were part of the Curator's Incubator Program, as well as from the jury structure, he inferred that he would not be chosen. For instance, the last three curators who received the grants, Yi-Cheng Sun, Hsiang-Wen Chen, and Ya-Hsiang Yang, had different trains of thought from his. He remarked, "The proposals that are accepted have a very 'northern' feel, as if there is a premise that you have to have lived in Taipei to know what the art world is talking about." He felt that the issues that he was concerned about were deemed insignificant. Moreover, in Taiwan's art world, exhibitions are commonly conceived as those within a white cube or a museum, instead of commercial or design exhibitions. In his situation, curating enhances his discourse power, but financial income must be generated elsewhere. "Curating is a bonus, not an option for making a living." He concluded by saying, "I don't think it's possible to make a living by curating independently, but after you gain a lot of experience, you might be noticed by an organization". For example, he was invited by MoCA Taipei to serve as one of the curators for the street area of Street Fun, Fun Street and received an invitation to curate for DAC.

Independent curator Shing-You Liou, he is also an artist

After analyzing the grants, Liou also discovered that more grants were given to artists, both in terms of the number of persons and size of the funds, so he considers it more viable to create work as an artist that resembles an exhibition. Especially since nowadays a lot of art consists of projectand the artworks themselves are already the size of whole exhibitions, he will not limit himself by having to apply for artist or curator grants. He is certain that he "ultimately, just wants to hold exhibitions", and since he believes that exhibiting and creating are two sides of the same coin, his desire to be an artist is greater than that of being a curator. Additionally, judging from past experience, curating and making art has always cost him money. In contrast, writing articles (criticism) has earned him a stable income, though it is still not enough. Currently, Liou is working in the Chiayi Art Museum. His tasks encompass developing exhibitions, education promotion, providing ideas for public education and interactive areas, and from his viewpoint and past experience, providing advice on work and discussing strategies with the museum. He started considering working in the Chiayi Art Museum because his peers successively had entered organizations, which made him anxious about finding work.

Another curator who mentioned the difficulty of making a living from curating was Yi-Fang Chen. She received the Curator's Incubator Program grant, but did not develop her career as a curator. She explained that whether one chooses a curating career requires balancing external conditions and one's life plans: Curatorial work in other countries is more professional and has more possibilities; she could only have developed her curating career if she had chosen to stay abroad. However, since she was certain about returning to Taiwan, and because she felt pessimistic about Taiwan's curatorial ecosystem, she did not dare to dream of a curating career. According to her observations, exhibitions in Taiwan are either too festival-like, event-like, and commercial, or too academic, non-mainstream, and built for a niche audience, forming a curating misconception. After graduating from college, Yi-Fang Chen had always worked in education, and because she had a full-time position as a teacher to support herself, she was able to curate In the Name of Fear at SinPinkPier (Absolutely SPP) in Kaohsiung in 2003. Thinking back, the Cultural Affairs Bureau only provided her with NT$20 thousand, but just the carpentry of the exhibition cost more than NT$100 thousand. If she were to wait for more suitable grants, there would be no suitable time slot at the art space, so she decided to spend her own money. Since holding the exhibition was her initiative, she was willing to cover the expenses herself. She learned from this experience that it is challenging to make a career in curating, and it would be hard to make a living and support a family by curating. According to Chen's observations, the reality was that unless the curator was a famous professor, most curatorial projects received no more than NT$20 thousand grants from the Cultural Affairs Bureau and the curator had to provide the rest of the budget.

Chen said that spending money to curate is not rare. Yen-Hsiang Fang, who currently works in KMFA, said that before entering an organization, he often had to borrow money to curate exhibitions, but never regretted it. Sometimes a cash flow gap was the result of a first installment that was too small, so the curator had to pay in advance, but sometimes it was due to a fundamental lack of funding. Fang said airily, "That's what independent curating is like! That's what it means to fund your own work; if you can't get enough support and end up spending too much, the exhibition still has to be done. You just have to deal with it!" Other than a lack of funding, another difficulty of independent curating often complained about is the "ceiling" situation that Yen-Hsiang Fang mentioned before: Even Amy Huei-Hwa Cheng, a successful, model curator with so much experience, had to apply for grants again and again to implement her plans. Especially with large scale, international curatorial projects, if there is a lack of funding from private organizations, curators in Taiwan have to rely on government resources (PGICVA or the Curator's Incubator Program) and increasingly need to tap into more resources. What's more, to younger generations after Amy Huei-Hwa Cheng and Chia-Chi Jason Wang, the development model of furthering their curating careers by working on large scale exhibitions has disappeared, a pity that Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai mentioned as well. With such lack of opportunities, Yen-Hsiang Fang realized that unless curators join an organization abroad, it's not very likely that they will get to work on international large scale exhibitions.

In the past, what Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai, the director of the Chiayi Art Museum, faced was precisely the hassle of having to repeatedly apply for grants. At that time, she had thought about how to support her studio: In a year, half of her time had to be spent on government projects, while the other half could be spent on personal projects, but the latter had to be supported by applying for grants every year. In the past, she had observed and discussed with Yen-Hsiang Fang, and they noticed that most of the curators who had applied to NCAF ended up working in organizations. However, other than the list of curators in the contemporary art world, she discovered some teams outside who were self-sufficient, such as Goldilocks Production, who works with the National Palace Museum on their displays. In their case, curatorial work is shifted from choosing the core content to arranging the presentation. Also, the curator Eva Lin, though not in the NCAF grant system, has worked on large projects in organizations and combined her curatorial ideas with the needs of her clients. She has been able to both curate exhibitions she is in interested in and support herself with the revenue of these large projects. Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai analyzed that if curators want to spend 100 percent of their time on exhibitions that they like, they must rely on NCAF's grants, unless art museums or art organizations can arrange a residency for them (such as serving as a guest curator), but this might not be too profitable, and won't work in the long run. These problems are mostly caused by Taiwan's art ecosystem, so NCAF is not the only one to be criticized.

Shang-Lin Wu's art used to consist mainly of photography and video art, but after returning to Taiwan, he discovered that these new media were not as widely accepted by collectors in Taiwan as painting and sculpture, making it difficult to survive. He also noticed that he had to constantly find resources. Such is the role of the curator, who must think practically. The curator has the power to actively bring together resources and help artists develop their careers abroad. Thinking back, he never planned to become a curator. He merely took the opportunities that came and his career path became clear as he progressed. When he returned to Taiwan, the Ministry of Culture was still called the Council for Cultural Affairs and the art ecosystem of Taiwan was more academic-based. As he watched artists return to Taiwan and operate alternative spaces, he contemplated on how he should continue on this path, which is too often supported not by sufficient financial funding, but by strong ideals. Different from the observations of Shing-You Liou, Shang-Lin Wu noticed that it is still easier to survive for curators than artists because they can access resources more easily. Curating is like building a house: If the foundation is stable, the exhibition will come through; however, artists need a bit of luck and their financial problems are greater.

To Sandy Hsiu-Chih Lo, who has always been an independent curator, financial problems are not that pressing. She said that she doesn't intend to make money from curating. Because her personality wasn't suited for a nine to five job, other than working as a journalist for The Journalist once, she also sold handmade accessories on the streets after 2000. Her products sold so well that she never felt that making money was difficult. "If there's a need for money, there will be a way" is Lo's belief. Her family's support has been important to her curating career. She expects herself to be financially independent and not ask her family for money to curate exhibitions. Curating is how Lo "works with art". When curating, she can invest all her energy, body and soul, and feel the most fulfilled. Even though at times she might not be able to make ends meet and support herself throughout the year, if she doesn't ask for too much materialistically, she feels that she can still make it through. Thinking back on PGICVA in NCAF's early years, Lo said that curator fees were not allowed in the budget. Unless the curator received support from other institutions or worked with an exhibition design company, there was no pay at all. Taking her exhibition Exorcising Exoticism for example, she said that "It was already a miracle that I didn't lose any money". A salary was out of the question. This exhibition was held in a public space. The expenses for setting it up were very high, as were the venue fees (especially the cost of advertising space, like shop windows, billboards, LED video walls, and other renting fees, which took up most of the funds). Fortunately, she was sponsored by the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store.

When talking about livelihood, Yi-Cheng Sun said that currently she is not averse to making money from curating, and wants to serve the public, the government, or other organizations that are open enough. Presently, she wants to hone her skills and continue learning in the future, since her closest friends all have two to three professions. In response to the pressure of surviving in the art environment, she is considering learning art therapy or traditional Chinese medicine. Other than this, she looks to step outside of the pure art world and develop "outwards". Starting in autumn 2020, she was invited by a design company to participate in a project for bid, a museum-style exhibition. In this process, she realized that curating wasn't just a concept for those in the art world, so she made an effort to bring dialectical thinking into exhibitions and help people of different fields understand this as well. In this job, Yi-Cheng Sun combined the disciplines of biology and contemporary art curating, and helped facilitate communication between the designers and the museum. In the future, if she has a clear goal in mind, she will still very likely apply for government grants, but at this moment, while her community is still playing by ear, she hopes to stay in the ideation stage and postpone applications for now. She encourages curators nurtured by NCAF to develop in interesting ways in other fields. After all, for her, curating is no longer about holding exhibitions, but about managing the relationships between people and within communities, facilitating conditions that make co-production possible.

From the aforementioned stories and observations of these curators who were interviewed, we can see the main problem lies in Taiwan's curatorial ecosystem: Although NCAF grants helped many curators kick off their careers, there aren't enough opportunities in Taiwan's art ecosystem to support their subsequent development, resulting in them having to repeatedly apply for grants, without any guarantee of success (even Shang-Lin Wu, who has received the grant regularly, feels uncertain). A difficulty to maintain their livelihoods has compelled them to expand the definition of "curating" and seek to develop in other fields.

Additionally, Yen-Hsiang Fang also mentioned another systemic problem of NCAF grants: Even though the PGICVA mechanism facilitates cooperation between curators and museums and greatly benefits museums, it would not be ideal if it became a custom for curators to bring resources to public sectors, government organizations, and large institutions. Overall, from the perspective of how organizations nurture curators in Taiwan, this would cause organizations to rely on independent curators. If production is fully outsourced, the organization will lose its ability to move forward. On the other hand, Chia-Wei Hsu pointed out that in-house curators are often treated as independent curators. The different units in Taiwan's art organizations, such as the exhibition division, promotion division, and collection division, often operate separately and have no substantial connection to each other, so in-house curators are not as effective as they could be. He said that this might not be NCAF's job, but perhaps it could function as a bridge and encourage some museums to start paying attention to their in-house curators.

Suggestions for NCAF

Suggestions that the interviewed curators had for NCAF and its judging criteria are as follows: Shing-You Liou suggested more diversity among members of the jury (this can be noticed from the diversity of the list of jurors each year) and a more diverse list of partner museums (in the past, the list mostly consisted of Hong-Gah Museum and Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts; those who lived far away would find working there difficult). Yen-Hsiang Fang also suggests more diversity. Projects with different characteristics need different kinds of support, and it would not be suitable to select them by using the same standards. For instance, in terms of time, space, and methods, pioneer curators will work differently from curators who do an exchange program with the government. From his personal experience, he is more of a pioneer in terms of making international connections, but has no practical results to show. Therefore, the grant should include two categories, "pioneering exploration" and "government exchange".

Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai suggests not to think of an exhibition as the ultimate goal necessarily, but to focus on nurturing curators, spurring them to think strategically and utilize resources. Until now, PGICVA has treated all curators the same, but since nowadays there are many types of curators, more thought could be put into how they are nurtured: What professional skills do they need? For example, museum administration experience, team project experience, the ability to communicate and work internationally, etc. Additionally, it would be helpful to build long-term cooperation between organizations and curators (by having curators do a residency for some time), so that curators can assist with museum exhibitions and also learn how organizations operate. Organizations can comprise various types such as museums, cultural parks, or large foreign institutions, second tier cities, and foundations. By doing research on how organizations are operated abroad, more possibilities can be brought to Taiwan. Similarly, Yi-Fang Chen suggested, "Perhaps we could bring up young curators the way athletes are trained (so they have a global perspective and the ability to curate international exhibitions)". Also, a good system is necessary for curating to become a feasible career. She especially emphasized, "You have to connect with the world. The market for curating in Taiwan is too small and linked too strongly with the academic world, and the academic market is not large either, so people fight for resources. Survival is hard and people become petty." She suggests that NCAF grants include matching curators with foreign organizations (cultural organizations, art centers, art museums, etc.) By providing opportunities to work or do exchanges with foreign institutions, young Taiwanese curators can observe, curate, and open their horizons.

Sandy Hsiu-Chih Lo proposed ways to improve the ecosystem. She said that NCAF PGICVA is a very important resource that could be used freely, but compared to other countries that are very supportive of the arts, Taiwan's ecosystem is still somehow inadequate. To improve Taiwan's ecosystem, she proposed setting up a mechanism to integrate resources of various fields, such as the visual arts, film, and literature, and look for possibilities for different disciplines to cooperate and have an impact on each other, so that Taiwan's cultural ecosystem can become more vibrant. An example could be increasing the freedom of public art and adjusting its mechanisms. There is still much room for improvement in open bids of public art projects. Taiwan's funding for public art mimics that of the United States. At least one percent of the funds for public infrastructure goes to public art, so every year there are plenty of funds for artists and curators to obtain necessary resources, and art is brought into our living spaces for further dialog. In the past, public art was treated like construction work. If artists were not restricted in how they created, there could be more room for expression for public art. She described an ideal exhibition: Funding would be provided by NCAF and the project would also be a public art one, so public art could come as close to ideal as possible.

The Story of the Contemporary Curatorial Ecosystem in Taiwan: Entering an Era of In-House Curators

Thanks to these ten curators, we can see where their stories connect: NCAF grants have certainly been effective, but because of a lack of opportunities and support in the overall ecosystem, many curators have found it difficult to develop their careers, and the road is especially difficult and narrow for independent curators in the realm of pure art. Fortunately, art organizations are no longer seen as rigid systems, but places full of potential. This seems to echo the words of Ping Lin when she was serving as the director of TFAM in 2020. In an interview she warned, "One of the fundamental problems of Taiwan's curatorial ecosystem is having neglected the system of in-house curators for a long while and directly jumped into independent curating. In the long term, this will result in 'rootlessness'."〔10〕In an era of countless museums, we can optimistically expect in-house curating to take root and make the profession of curating more sustainable.

Notes

1: Wu, Muching (Host). Hsiao, Jo (Taipei Fine Arts Museum Curator), Huang, Anita Hsiang-Ning (New Taipei Museum of Arts Curator) (Interviewees). (2021, December 9). Art Stationary Front, Reconsidering the Era of In-House Curating. Art Museum Exhibition CPU—feat. Jo Hsiao and Anita Hsiang-Ning Huang (EP07) [Audio Podcast]. https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1584492292?i=1000544379950&fbclid=IwAR3LaWKVK0_Z-2M7RZCV_viDu72TaDq8UrZ-vuLyKknG_YUdGAhtGyfYFBc [Dec 10, 2021] 
2: Anita Hsiang-Ning Huang is currently working in the Exhibition Education Section of the Preparatory Office of the New Taipei Museum of Arts.
3: Chang, Yu-Yin. (2020). "Are There Only Independent Curators in Taiwan?—the Long Neglected System of In House Curators".https://artouch.com/views/cultural-policy/content-12284.html [2021, December 10]
4: Lu, Pei-Yi. "On the Road: Contemporary Art Curatorship in Taiwan from the 1990s to the Present”. Lu, Pei-Yi (Ed.). Contemporary Art Curating In Taiwan 1992-2012, Taipei: Art & Collection Group, 2015, pp. 22-23.
5: Wang, Chia-Chi Jason. (2004). "A Long Way to Go in Independent Curatorial Practice". Artist Magazine, Issue No. 352, pp. 239-241.
6: After 2016, aside from the two phases, NCAF also restored the grant mechanism which is just for exhibitions.
7: This information was provided by Mr. Jow-Jiun Gong.
8: Recipients of the Regular Grants for Visual Arts Exhibition Projects from 2017 to 2019 include: Feng-Yi Chu, Tzu-Tung Lee, Gabriele de Seta, Tsai-Hsuan Peng, Bamboo Curtain Studio, Yu-Chieh Li, Shih-Yu Hsu, Tsung-Yun Lai (2018), Shing-You Liou, Min-Chi Huang with Ocular Studio and TP, Rongda Wei, Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai (2018), Te-Mao Lee, Hsinyen Wei, James T. Hong, Shih-yu Hsu, the Mitmachstadt Asia team (with organizers and implementers An-Chi Cheng, Ling-Yu He, Eunbi Kwon, Veronika Albrandt, and Wei-Chi Wang), Hsin Feng, Yi-Cheng Sun, Tsung-Yun Lai (2019), Cheng-Tao Chen, and Nicole Yi-Hsin Lai (2019). A total of 22 curators (or curating teams) received the grant, including the times the same curator (or curating team) received the grant in different years. Among them, around 10 are artist curators, such as Tzu-Tung Lee, Gabriele de Seta, Tsung-Yun Lai (2018), Shing-You Liou, Min-Chi Huang, Te-Mao Lee, Hsinyen Wei, James T. Hong, Tsung-Yun Lai (2019), and Cheng-Tao Chen.
9: https://www.facebook.com/Chiayi.Art.Museum/posts/1269623920142433 [ Oct. 21, 2021]
10: Chang, Yu-Yin. (2020). "Are There Only Independent Curators in Taiwan?—the Long Neglected System of In House Curators".