In recent years, collectors and artists alike have established foundations and museums in the effort to afford proper preservation to fine works and paintings. Despite such noble ideals, privately run museums, lacking financial muscle and qualified management, often find themselves adrift not long after setting sail.

What kind of assistance can the government offer Taiwan's precious cultural assets? Other than establishing private museums, where else can older artists house their life's work?

Having experienced the ups and downs of the times and maintained a lifetime of undying commitment to art, Taiwan's elder generation of artists has gained society's validation in their twilight years. As they reach their autumnal years, they are liable to fret about the paintings they have cherished all their lives, and could never bring themselves to sell. Some may worry that given market value in the millions or tens of millions of NT dollars per painting, their works will be sold off in an instant by their heirs, or spread far and wide among them. Recently, over a dozen boxes filled with the life works of the late photographer Lang Ching-shan languished for three years, threatened by mildew and destruction due to the inability of 11 sons and daughters living in Taiwan and abroad to come to agreement.

In answer to the expectations of these elder artists, one private museum after another has been established. In Penghu, ink painter and sculptor Chao Erh-tai established the Chao Erh-tai Art Museum, and private art museums memorializing Taiwan's first generation of oil painters, including Yang San-lang, Li Mei-shu, Lee Shih-chiao, and Li Tse-fan, have been founded in recent years.

Remembering

These private art museums or memorial museums on the one hand afford centralized management and exhibition of these senior artists' works, and privately held works of art might be donated to foundations as public cultural assets open to the public. In another sense, they bring greater diversity to art appreciation, spreading and expanding viewing opportunities beyond the select few major public art museums. Art critic Lin Hsin-yueh applauds the establishment of private art museums. In fact, Lin would like to see more small art museums in every village, town, and city.

By collecting together the works of masters and gathering momentos from their lives, including photographs and documents, private museums are better equipped to take viewers into the artist's mindset and to enhance their appreciation of the spiritual tenor of the times. Further, they can serve as centers of research on the artist's works.

Among Taiwan's many private art museums, the Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery stands out in particular for top-notch administration and comprehensive planning. The gallery is located in the artist's hometown of Sanhsia, out of which the artist hardly ever ranged during his life. As a result, and due in no small part to the dedicated collecting efforts of Li's heirs, in addition to paintings the gallery houses a comprehensive collection of school notebooks, painting studies from his career in normal school, down to his student uniform and documents from Tokyo University of the Arts, the chair upon which his model sat, and over 2000 brushes employed by the artist.

Today, the young woman splashing in the water, the women working in the field, and the little boy teasing a turkey seen in the paintings of Li Mei-shu-an artist who wore his love for his hometown on his sleeve, who often took his family, village neighbors, and local scenes as subjects, and who dedicated a good deal of his final years toward the restoration of Sanhsia's Temple of the Ancestors-are the daughter-in-law, daughters, and son who collect entrance fees and give tours at the gallery. Stepping outside the gallery, the surrounding iron bridges, the running creek, the twilight sky, the stone pillars and lions of the Temple of the Ancestors, all seem touched by the presence of the master. There simply couldn't be a better place for a museum in his memory. "Li Mei-shu and Sanhsia are inseparable," says Li Ching-wen, Li's third son.

Since its opening, the Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery has hosted an average of 3000 visits each month. The management of the gallery benefits from the efforts of Li's 11 sons and daughters, and their family members, who have also established the Li Mei-shu and Sanhsia Temple of the Ancestors Academic Research and Development Center. In addition to overseeing the gallery's operation, family members recruit volunteers as exhibition guides, as well as to produce and sell catalogues, volumes on particular related subjects, and postcards.

A weight on the mind

Establishing a private art museum or donating works to a foundation that will never sell the works is a beautiful fantasy indeed. Yet getting established is the easy part; the difficulty is in sustained operation. In the case of another elder generation artist, when the owners of the Hsinsheng South Road studio in which Lee Shih-chiao spent nearly 40 years reclaimed the premises, a space in the Apollo Building in east Taipei had to be purchased instead. Although a museum was established, as a consequence it lost its potential local commemorative significance. And lacking properly trained management, the Yang San-lang Fine Arts Museum saw the loss or destruction of most of the historical documents on the artist's life.

Whether salaries, utilities, or facility upkeep, the operation of private art museums comes down to money. Recently, the Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery spent nearly NT$400,000 to clean the painting Boy Teasing Turkey, and over NT$1 million to refurbish another work. Such extraordinary expenses are far more than a private art museum can get by on with door receipts or interest derived from cultural foundations.

Hsu Yu-yen, director of the Yang San- lang Fine Arts Museum, relates that even though the gallery is open only on weekends, she must still shell out over NT$100,000 per month to cover operating costs. The Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery sells one of the artist's smaller works each year to enable continued operation. Strapped by limited funding, private museums can ill afford to retain expert planners or benefit from professional painting preservation and maintenance.

Legal avenues, many obstructions

Possibly legal issues may pose the most distressing threat to the survival of private museums. Currently, Taiwan does not have a specific "museum law," and according to the Law on the Establishment of Educational Agencies and Related Incentive Measures, whether private museums, art museums, or memorial museums are founded directly or established under a foundation, all must first be registered as corporate entities.

Current laws governing corporate entities dictate that spouses or relatives may not exceed one-third the total number of directors, and that poorly run museums must be turned over to public operation or into the hands of other legal entities. While the purpose of such regulations is to ensure the public nature of private museums, making them public assets, at the same time they also strip families of decision-making power. Weighing their rights against their privileges, Li Mei-shu's heirs are hesitant to take that first step toward legality, even though illegal art museums are ineligible for land and real estate tax exemptions and reduced utilities costs.

Moreover, when the Law on the Establishment of Educational Agencies and Related Incentive Measures was introduced over a decade ago, there were very few private museums in Taiwan, thus the target of the legal code was basically large fine arts or other museums. Consequently, private museums established after this law came into effect have been treated precisely the same as large public museums in terms of facilities and organizational requirements: minimum structural support capacities, obstruction-free spaces, or such public safety issues as fire safety are all scrutinized against the standards governing large museums. As a result, even after establishing a cultural or educational foundation, private museums are invariably unable to gain legitimate museum status due to their lack of "adequate facilities."

During a forum on the establishment of private museums, many private museum directors expressed hope that the government write an unequivocal "Museum Law," design handbooks for citizens considering establishing museums, and set different requirements for museums depending on specific characteristics and size. In addition, they would like to see the government offer appraisal, oversight, and incentives. "Legal strictures and public safety requirements are always necessary, but holding the National Palace Museum and a small family-operated private museum to exactly the same legal standards is clearly inappropriate," says Lu Yu-hua, public relations director of the Su Ho Memorial Paper Museum, which was recently closed for failure to meet regulations on floor load capacity. The encouraging news is that both relevant supervisory agencies, the Council for Cultural Affairs and the Taipei Department of Education, have held public forums, to which scholars and museum directors have been invited, to discuss how to amend the laws to make up for current inadequacies.

Operators of private museums not only look for the government to play a supervisory role, but also to actively engage in counseling-especially where the production of publications and museum guides is concerned, and where public museum resources and experience regarding the temperature and humidity of art displays, lighting controls, and the upkeep and restoration of paintings can be provided. Private museums hope the government will share such information with private museums which, like their public counterparts, are also open to the public and have limited funding.

To be or not to be

Worldwide, there are many art museums or memorial museums dedicated to individual artists, such as the C憴anne Memorial Museum and the Monet home in southern France, or the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Spain. The Picasso Museum contains many of the artist's works from throughout his life, even including a sketch the artist executed as a child from candy wrappers. The former homes of C憴anne and Monet contain no more than a few works, as most of these are held in museums under constant temperature and humidity. Meanwhile, memorial museums such as Chang Ta-chien's former residence, mainly serve as places for the public to remember the artists.

As private art museums face a multitude of woes, while holding them in esteem for their willingness to open their holdings to the public, we look to the government to actively encourage their establishment. Meanwhile, donation to public museums remains another viable option for preserving works of art for posterity, leaving remembrance to the memorial museums.

The works of Taiwan's elder generation of artists record the evolution of Taiwan's fine arts and give voice to the spirit of their age. As such, they are the shared cultural assets of society. The survival of private art museums, and the preservation of each work chronicling the development of Taiwan's fine art, should be more than just the hopes of old painters but an issue of concern for all of society.

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The Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery, visited by over 3000 people each month, devotes tremendous effort to the promotion of arts education.

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Just off the beaten path of the urban jungle, a boutique-like private museum enriches the city with cultural activity.

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Artist Li Mei-shu, who dedicated his last years to the restoration of the Temple of the Ancestors in Sanhsia, is practically inseparable from his hometown of Sanhsia. Locating a memorial gallery in the artist's hometown is the most fitting way to pay tribute to his love for the area.

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In addition to paintings, the Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery houses sketches from his youth, a study for an embroidery given to his wife before their marriage, and assorted school notebooks. These items are valuable records in the research of Taiwanese art history.

Just off the beaten path of the urban jungle, a boutique-like private museum enriches the city with cultural activity.

Artist Li Mei-shu, who dedicated his last years to the restoration of the Temple of the Ancestors in Sanhsia, is practically inseparable from his hometown of Sanhsia. Locating a memorial gallery in the artist's hometown is the most fitting way to pay tribute to his love for the area.

In addition to paintings, the Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery houses sketches from his youth, a study for an embroidery given to his wife before their marriage, and assorted school notebooks. These items are valuable record s in the research of Taiwanese art history.