Focusing and Expanding: Some Words on the Planning and Transformation of the Production Grants to Independent Curators in Visual Arts of the National Culture and Arts Foundation

Introduction

The National Culture and Arts Foundation (NCAF) launched project grants during the first term of Chairman Mun-Lee Lin (2003-2004) by introducing and integrating resources from various institutions and effectively using funds. While regular grants aim to consolidate the existing foundation of arts and cultural development, project grants invest in more initiative-driven and representative projects, thereby more substantially responding to the current needs of arts and cultural development at the time and giving artists or artist groups more flexibility and room for creative projects. In addition to the project grants, the Friends of NCAF program also strategically utilizes resources according to practical needs, thus generating significant outcomes. Since its launch in 2004, the Curatorial Practice in Exhibitions Project (now Production Grants to Independent Curators in Visual Arts, PGICVA) has been implemented for 17 consecutive years as of 2021. The regulations for grants have also undergone several amendments over the years in response to needs of various ecosystems and industries of arts in Taiwan and abroad. On the other hand, the Curator's Incubator Program @ Museums, launched in 2010, focuses on talent development. Through matching professional museum resources in Taiwan, it constructs and expands a stage for curatorial practice.

PGICVA and the Curator's Incubator Program @ Museums have supported a total of 82 exhibitions and 30 residential research projects as of present (2021), with grant amounts totaling NT$142.53 million. In addition, since their launch, the grant regulations for both programs have undergone several changes and adjustments: PGICVA has expanded from a single-phase project grant scheme to a two-phase program: residential research in Phase I and exhibition plans in Phase II. The Curator's Incubator Program @ Museums has evolved from collaborating with a single museum (Hong-Gah Museum) to allowing multiple museums to join, and the grant amounts have also been raised. The aforementioned adjustments show NCAF's close monitoring of Taiwan's curatorial environment and its flexibility in making timely adjustments. The grants from NCAF's PGICVA have also impacted the arts ecosystem in Taiwan. This article investigates the contributions of PGICVA over the past 10-plus years in aspects such as the planning of grant mechanisms, the types of venues in which grantees present their projects and their significance, and the partner venues' expectations and conceptions of the grants.

Twelve years ago, I was a one of the grantees of Curator's Incubator Program @ Museums (originally Curator's Incubator Program @ Hong-Gah Museum). It was my first time to work with an art institution and practice a research project. Several years later, through PGICVA – International Residential Research and Exhibition Exchange Project, I had the opportunity to visit Tokyo for a residency. After the research project was finished, I also curated in Taiwan and Japan. I benefited substantially from these two opportunities in terms of curatorial research practice and exhibition planning in corresponding spaces, and they helped me identify my interest in curatorial categories, which is highly related to the direction of the museum I currently work for. NCAF's grant resources and the developmental ecosystem of the visual arts have always had a symbiotic relationship. The changes and adjustments to the grants can also directly impact the arts ecosystem. This article will review the regulations for project implementation, the number of applicants and grantees over the years, the interviews with planners of the grants, as well as the changes in perspective due to changes of roles from applicants/grantees to current partner museums as the main references of my arguments. Through my concluding observations and suggestions, I hope to offer some potential approaches towards curatorial talent development for PGICVA and the Curator's Incubator Program.

The author of this article, Zoe Chia-Jung Yeh, was one of the grantees of Curator's Incubator Program. The photo showed the exhibition scene of Living in an Out-of-Place (2011), curated by Yeh and exhibited at Honggah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

A Grant Review Mechanism Tailored to Curating Professionals to Facilitate Professional Exchanges

PGICVA's review mechanism is similar to that of NCAF's other grant schemes. After an applicant submits an application, the administrative staff of NCAF will first verify the applicant's eligibility and whether required documents are complete. Next, professional judges will be invited to conduct interviews; the number of judges is adjusted based on the number of applicants each year. For example, in 2008, there were 16 applicants and 5 judges, while in 2012, there were 6 applicants and 3 judges. The judge panels are composed of university professors, independent curators, artists, cultural policy researchers, and venue administrators. After interviewing applicants, the judge panel will grade each proposal and finally make a joint decision on the grantees and the amounts, which will be announced after receiving the approval of the NCAF Board of Directors.

In contrast to the massive volume of applications for regular grants, there have not been many applicants for project grants. Since PGICVA was launched in 2004, the volume of applicants has not fluctuated greatly over the years. In the early years of PGICVA, there were around a dozen applications each year (15 in 2004, of which 6 received grants; 12 in 2006, of which 5 received grants; and 11 in 2007, of which 4 received grants). Successful applicants account for approximately 40% of total applicants and the grant amounts mostly sit between NT$1 million to NT$2 million, which shows a stable trend. After the new Phase I grant for residential research was introduced to the amended grant regulations in 2012, the total number of applicants has still sat at over 10 (in 2012, there were 11 applicants for curatorial projects and 7 for residential research, or 18 in total; in 2013, there were 15 applicants for residential research and 3 for exhibition projects, or 18 in total, too). These numbers show that, in the field of professional curating, those who can commit much time to curatorial research and present exhibition projects of a scale of NT$1 million or above are a very specific group of highly-skilled people. These people, despite the different group compositions in different times, all rely on grants to accumulate their curatorial experience.

Since the grants target a very specific group of people, curating professionals effectively play the role of supervisors to each other. This can be demonstrated by the interchangeable roles between judges and grantees over the years. Those who have acted as judges may become applicants in another year. For example, Yuan-Chien Chang, who was a judge in 2004, received a grant in 2007 for her project titled Da'ai Arts Festival – Origin of the Secret. Others may have been grantees and became judges later in their careers. For example, Jun-Jieh Wang, who won a grant in 2004 for his Bias Noise II: A Sound Device Exhibition, acted as a judge for PGICVA in 2013 and 2014. Many other curators exemplify similar situations. Even seasoned visual arts professionals who have been invited to act as judges may, in another appropriate timing, implement their proposals through NCAF's support. The grant review mechanism also makes the review process effectively a self-assessment or peer review. The competition between curators is simultaneously also research work on each other's experience. The review process, so to speak, is a scene of curators' mutual communication and exchanges.

Expanding the Scope of Grants in Response to Curatorial Research Needs

Looking back to the regulations of PGICVA over the years, one can observe two significant expansions and adjustments in 2008 and 2012, respectively. During 2008-2009, the Curator's Incubator Program, which mainly supports overseas researches, was added to encourage curators to propose research plans with an international vision and original approach. The applicants are not required to submit curatorial proposals, but must submit a 10,000-word report and do a public presentation after completing their researches. This program, which focuses on learning and exchange, supports different individuals, not applicants of exhibition projects. Its main objective is to encourage early-career curators to pursue overseas experiences and build their networks under this program.

After the Curator's Incubator Program @ Hong-Gah Museum commenced in 2010, the Curator's Incubator Program, which mainly focused on research, was temporarily discontinued. In 2012, it became a part of project grants as the International Residential Research and Exhibition Exchange Project under PGICVA. The new grant mechanism continues to encourage curators to work with professional teams for the unwavering goal of improving the quality of domestic arts exhibitions. However, the grant is now split into two phases: Phase I residential research and Phase II exhibition exchange. In that year, the grants for overseas residential research even provided two options for residencies (Tokyo Wonder Site in Tokyo and 1a space in Hong Kong). Through NCAF's matchmaking and introduction, curators can pursue overseas studies and build international connections. In the subsequent editions of the grant, as curators' international connections improved, the locations of overseas residential research became an open option for applying curators.

If one compares the timings of the grant regulations' adjustments with the ratios of grantees over the years, one can see that, during 2008-2010, the yearly number of applicants for exhibition grants sat consistently at roughly 15 compared to the first three years of the scheme. However, this is a drop to 20% in the number of grantees from the nearly 40% of 2004-2007 (there were 16 applicants for exhibition project grants in 2008, 15 in 2009, and 13 in 2010, but only 3 were successful in each year), and the total amount dropped accordingly. The consistency in the number of applicants and the decreasing ratio of successful applicants show that the competition for exhibition project grants grew increasingly tougher. For this reason, it became even more crucial to improve quality of exhibition proposals. Observing this trend, NCAF also expanded the grant categories by including residential research and curatorial preliminary research, thereby encouraging curators to put forth more comprehensive plans through overseas studies or themed research. The adjustments also included changing curatorial projects, which were implemented only in Taiwan in the early years of PGICVA, to simultaneous overseas and domestic exhibitions; some proposals even planned overseas exhibitions only. This marked a major transformation of PGICVA. In addition to the required abilities to conduct themed research, communicate with artists, and plan exhibitions, curators now also had to demonstrate their ability to communicate and negotiate with overseas institutions. Before this change, there were indeed some people with a professional background in arts who could conduct international exchanges, as well as many museums which could organize international exchange exhibitions. But NCAF's grants, which encouraged curators to propose overseas exhibition projects, effectively pushed professional curators unaffiliated to certain institutions or government agencies to explore various possibilities of overseas exchange more autonomously through non-governmental means.

The Difference in Venues for Grantee Projects, Their Various Strategies, and Their Impact on Institutions

The grant records from 2004 to 2020 show that around half of the grantee proposals were implemented at government-run venues or university art museums. The Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA) has had the most proposals with 8 in total, followed by the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (MoCA Taipei) and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA), each with 6; the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) has had 4 (all from the first three years of the grants). Among the grantee curatorial proposals, some contacted their venues and submitted proposals to them before making their applications, while others submitted applications for grants and proposals for exhibitions at the same time, or even applied for grants first and contacted venues for relevant negotiations after the grants were approved. However, regardless of the sequential order between contacts with venues and grant approvals, those who chose to implement curatorial projects at university museums or government-run venues often did so because these have a larger space than galleries or private-owned venues and more comprehensive facilities, along with an existing visual arts audience. For the grantees, the grant is indeed an ideal support strategy because it allows curators to implement exhibitions at venues with certain spatial and environmental advantages.

The grant 2004-2020 records show that around half of the grantee proposals were implemented at government-run venues or university art museums. The photo showed the exhibition scene of Letter．Callus．Post-War (2019), exhibited at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan

For curators applying for grants, the primary concern is choosing a space that fits the exhibition themes (therefore, over the years, there have been proposals which venues did not specialize in arts activities due to the specific topics of the exhibitions). For venues, however, the relatively generous grants offered by PGICVA can considerably reduce the financial pressure of exhibition projects. This benefit can be discerned from the fact that many exhibitions have been conducted at university museums. In comparison to government-run museums, the operational costs of university museums normally do not account for a large proportion in the university budget. Responsible for hosting exhibitions organized by teachers and students in the university, university museums also have to lay emphasis on the quality of exhibits to satisfy teaching needs. However, the staffing of university museums makes it difficult to allocate a sufficient budget amount for exhibition projects apart from costs of venue maintenance and human resources. For this reason, proposals planned and implemented by independent curators under the financial support of NCAF become a source of funding that helps enrich exhibition contents for university museums.

On the other hand, from the institutions' point of view, government-run museums in Taiwan normally recruit personnel through national examinations. Museum staff (including exhibition personnel) assigned to individual institutions based on the examination results do not necessarily have a professional training in contemporary art curating. Furthermore, due to the limitations of the regulations of public official appointment, it is also not easy for museum staff to accumulate curatorial experience in different venues; on the contrary, they often work for the same museum for a long time. With such a relatively rigid system of appointment, PGICVA can be viewed as a form of talent exchange for museums thanks to grantee curators planning exhibitions in their premises. Curatorial proposals from independent or external curators do not have to comply with the policies or operational directions of individual museums, thus making exhibition projects more flexible and diversified in exhibition contents beyond the confines of venues' existing frameworks.

Among the venues that have hosted grantees' exhibitions over the years, places like private-owned museums, galleries, and alternative spaces account for over one-third of all venues, slightly less than government-run venues or university museums. These venues mostly have a good relationship with local communities and stable audiences, and are more open-minded to highly experimental topics than government-run venues, making them ideal venues for exhibitions. Lastly, the projects that account for around 10 percent of total grantees are exhibitions held in non-arts spaces. As mentioned above, curators' primary concern must always be how the themes of their exhibition fit into a given space. In this sense, the openness of PGICVA allows curators to experiment with projects that involve diverse urban and rural contexts. Furthermore, there have been more overseas exhibitions of various types since PGICVA was split into two phases and began including residential research grants. This change means not only that curators can extensively access international resources and foster international exchanges, but also that a wider variety of discussions can arise from the selection and forms of collaboration with overseas venues, which can be analyzed and discussed later on in different articles.

Art as Environment: a cultural action at the Plum Tree Creek (2010 PGICVA-funded exhibition), curated by Mali Wu, exhibited at Bamboo Curtain Studio and Plum Tree Creek Area

Evolution of the Curator's Incubator Program and the Significance and Possibilities of the Increase in Venues

Launched in 2010, the Curator's Incubator Program @ Museums initially collaborated with the Hong-Gah Museum and selected three new curators each year, who received grants of approximately NT$300,000-400,000 from NCAF. The Hong-Gah Museum provided the venue and, under such limited budget, curators could allocate resources in a space of appropriate scale for their practice. Since 2013, the Curator's Incubator Program was changed from an annual to a biennial project grant. Not only was the grant amount raised to NT$800,000, but partner venues were also added. These venues include MoCA Taipei and KMFA, both of which joined the program in 2013. In 2015, the program was extended to the Soulangh Cultural Park in southern Taiwan. In 2017, the Yu-Hsiu Museum of Art, Yilan Museum of Art, and Museum of National Taipei University of Education were also included. The Yo-Chang Art Museum joined in 2019. In 2021, the Chiayi Art Museum and Taitung Art Museum also joined. In particular, the active participation from emerging and local art museums has also brought a positive impact on the program.

In the early years of the Curator's Incubator Program @ Hong-Gah Museum, organized by the Hong-Gah Museum, the three grantee curators were more like rentees to the museum. Each of the curators had a different theme/concern and a different approach to the museum's spatial arrangement. The responsible staff/officer at the museum assisted with curators' projects, but did not actively engage in resource integration as a necessary task. Also, due to the complex, administrative tasks of the three exhibitions, the staff was not able to have in-depth collaborations and discussions with each curator. In fact, the curators' presentation of their themes was not directly related to the museum's positioning and strategic direction. The program's partner venues have been on the increase since 2013, so each curator has become able to choose appropriate exhibition venues according to specific curating themes or make curatorial proposals that better fit the characteristics of individual venues, thus improving the congruity between proposals and spaces according to the different conditions and spatial resources of specific venues.

The Curator's Incubator Program expand collaborations with museums from 2013, the photo showed the exhibition scene of Mercurial Boundaries: Imagining Future Memory, curated by Han-Fang Wang and exhibited at Museum of National Taipei University of Education (MoNTUE), Taipei, Taiwan

The Curator's Incubator Program expand collaborations with museums from 2013, the photo showed the exhibition scene of Specific Containers (2021), curated by Chien Chi and exhibited at Yo-Chang Art Museum, New Taipei, Taiwan

Under such circumstances, venues also need to enhance their positioning and respond to the needs of different exhibition proposals. For the partner institutions, the program is not only the curators' incubator, but also the institutions' incubator. More concretely, the partner institutions are mostly medium-sized venues rather than large-sized museums like national- or city/municipal-level museums, and they also have relatively few staff. NCAF matches venues with external curators that can put forth diversified projects and in turn enrich the venues' array of exhibitions and allow their teams to compare and observe different work models, thus providing an opportunity for mutual learning. When implementing curatorial projects under the program, internal staff can share their experience and suggestions with curators because they are most familiar with the venues' spatial conditions, while external curators can also introduce different visions and approaches to the museums. There is much that they can learn if they can abundantly exchange with each other.

For local museums, participating in the program involves another concern: discovering or cultivating local curating talents. Higher education institutions that specialize in art are not evenly distributed in Taiwan and very few offer degrees in curating. As a result, relevant material and human resources are likely to be concentrated in metropolitan areas. However, if local museums have long-term engagement with local communities or a close cooperative relationship with local arts professionals, they may encourage local young curators to make proposals that utilize their spaces to begin their practice, or even work together to discuss and develop project ideas that can later be jointly implemented with arts institutions and grantors, thereby unearthing and fostering local young curators.

Conclusion

There was no grant program aimed at supporting professional curating projects in Taiwan before PGICVA was proposed in 2004. The scheme was launched in order to cultivate professional curating talents in Taiwan and enhance exhibition quality. Furthermore, in 2012, the scope of grants was expanded in response to the needs for a more international vision and further promotion of professional international exchanges. Since 2010, the Curator's Incubator Program @ Museums was also launched to help young curators start accumulating professional experience more accessibly. These two programs timely responded to the need for financial support in Taiwan's arts environment. As Chairman Mun-Lee Lin mentioned in this interview, to evaluate NCAF's various services and grants, one must consider the social and historical contexts at the time. Over the past two decades, Taiwan's arts ecosystem has undergone many changes. County and city governments have established their own museums and commercial galleries or private-owned arts centers have also started to employ in-house curators. Meanwhile, outside these arts institutions, various arts festivals have started to take place in local communities or on streets, allowing curators to showcase their skills more publicly. Regardless of different venues' varying needs or their different conceptions of curating, the wider environment has indeed seen a gradual increase in demand for curatorial work. In addition to NCAF's grants, various forms of curator training programs have been gradually launched by educational institutions (e.g., the NTUA Emerging Curators' Program organized by National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA)); county and city governments (e.g., the Curator's Incubator Program organized by the Hsinchu City Art Gallery); and non-governmental institutions (e.g., the One-Year Incubator Program launched by the Association of the Visual Arts in Taiwan (AVAT) under Taiwan Annual). Despite the differences in venue conditions and grant regulations, these efforts show the enduring vibrancy of Taiwan's curating scene. Evidently, NCAF's pioneering efforts have set an influential example for the curatorial ecosystem in Taiwan's art world.

This article has repeatedly mentioned the relationship between grantees and partner institutions to convey the idea that grants are a strong support for the arts ecosystem. The accumulation of curatorial experience requires unceasing practice. Seasoned curators can initiate many small projects to study various topics, while young curators can also conceive big projects. Likewise, large-, medium- or small-sized institutions can all receive inspiration and learn through collaboration with external curators. The grants not only lead to an improvement in the quality of curatorial work, but can also serve as stimulus and incentive for a larger amount of exchanges between independent curators and partner institutions, ultimately bringing about the vigorous development and flourishing of the field of curating. The target grantees of the two schemes correspond to the two stages of a curator's career. The Curator's Incubator Program targets those who have just finished their studies and are in need of practical curatorial experience, while PGICVA supports medium-scale projects by curators without an institutional affiliation who need to conduct in-depth research of specific topics. These schemes pave the way for curators to participate in projects at the level of arts festival or biennials later in their careers. However, to give curators sufficient experience to take the next step in their professional pursuits, it is necessary to have mutual understanding and integration between government agencies, grantors, and artist circles. Currently, local arts festivals at a financial scale of NT$10 million are considered by local governments to be arts exhibitions part of their city marketing and tourism economic policies. This view is in a fundamental conflict with that of curatorial projects, which by nature emphasize themed research and artwork quality. It is therefore necessary to build communication channels between exhibitions with different needs in order to improve the artistic and exhibition quality of local arts festivals and simultaneously encourage visual arts curators to reach a wider audience. Perhaps grantors with a perpetual influence on the arts ecosystem may consider playing such a role in the future.