Art Bank Open for Business

The Art Bank has been a high-priority project for the Ministry of Culture (MOC). Minister Lung Ying-tai has spoken often on what she envisions—government agencies and private companies deciding to fill public spaces not with knock-offs of well known art works, but with originals done by artists working right here in Taiwan. She hopes to see Taiwan showing proper support for its own artists, thus propelling local arts to a whole new level.

The Art Bank, located in Taichung City, has row after row of special painting racks in rooms equipped for rigorous temperature and humidity control.

Besides being our nation’s response to an international trend, the Art Bank also represents an effort to make Taiwan’s contemporary art more competitive in the market.

Art prices at international auction houses have been setting record highs in recent years. News media have reported breathlessly on this global trend, which has seen market prices spiraling upward just about everywhere, especially in Asia. Hot money from mainland China has fueled an upsurge of collector interest in contemporary art, sending prices steadily higher in the art markets of Southeast and Northeast Asia.

Oddly, however, despite the fact that collectors in Taiwan spend just as big as their counterparts anywhere else, they mostly buy works by overseas Chinese, or by artists in mainland China, while showing little interest in local works. With this kind of market, even the most skilled of artists in Taiwan find that the buyers just aren’t out there.

During her travels to the West, Lung hit upon a response to the situation. She discovered that many nations have established government-run art collections in a conscious effort to get government agencies, embassies, and other entities to display the works of artists from their own countries. In addition to putting their countries’ soft power on display, these collections also serve to introduce the work of local artists to international audiences. She decided to introduce the idea to Taiwan, to gradually familiarize more people with locally based contemporary artists. In time, the market could be expected to pick up.

Nutrients of Breathing, by the Paiwan artist Etan Pavavalung, crackles with the primeval tension of the earth.

On a cool, sunny day, Tai­chung’s Zi­you Road, nicknamed “Bank Street” for all the financial institutions there, presents the slow and easygoing atmosphere for which central Taiwan is noted. There on Bank Street, a three-story building that was once home to the Tai­chung branch of the Government Information Office now houses the Art Bank. The collections are kept in this building, and there is also a small display hall. The presence of an art bank right in the middle of Bank Street is a delicious coincidence.

The Art Bank is currently run by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (­NTMoFA), which is under the MOC. Refurbishing of the Art Bank headquarters structure was finished just this past January, and it opened in late March.

Work to the get the Art Bank up and running over the past year has been a two-phase undertaking. The first task was to build out the Art Bank’s systems and physical premises. The interior facilities needed to be finished, staff had to be hired, and standard procedures had to be worked out for the purchase and leasing of art works. Then the next task was to get operations started. The Art Bank zeroed in on government agencies, airports and train stations as its first customers. If all went to plan, corporations would take notice and start leasing art works themselves.

Taichung Train Station Building: Excellence, an oil painting by Lee Chin-hsien, depicts the richly nostalgic atmosphere of the Taichung railway station.

But what sort of art works does the Art Bank want in its collection?

To ensure a transparent and objective purchasing process, the Art Bank has adopted a solicitation procedure that puts top priority on artists who haven’t really embarked on the market and don’t yet have a gallery or agent. There are no restrictions regarding age or medium; any work that makes it through the first and second selection rounds can become part of the collection.

The Art Bank has purchased paintings, sculptures, prints, installations, and photographs, in principle up to a maximum price of NT$300,000. Once a purchase is complete, photographs of the work are made available for public browsing on the Art Bank website.

And would you believe that it’s cheaper to lease a work of art than to rent a car? Charges are billed monthly, at a rate of 0.4% of the purchase price, with lease contracts running from three months to a year. A work purchased at NT$100,000 rents out for only about NT$690 to NT$960 per month (including rental fee, insurance premium, and the cost of transportation, exhibit setup, and exhibit dismantling).

The MOC last September released information on the first batch of art purchases. From among 3,282 works submitted by 855 artists, the selection committee had chosen 346 works from 195 artists of all ages. The committee considered such factors as the works’ impact on the art world, how representative they are of Taiwanese art, and whether they are appropriate to be leased out.

The oldest artist was the 84-year-old photographer Su Ming-­chuan, who sold the Art Bank a 1972 photograph of a duck farm. The youngest was 22-year-old inkwash painter Lin Yu-pei.

Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (center) personally visited the Art Bank headquarters, where she toured the warehouse and exhibit hall.

Because artists have enthusiastically answered the call for submissions, the Art Bank has been able to purchase works from a wide range of very influential artists, including older painters, members of indigenous tribes, and amateurs. Paintings by art scene veteran Lee Chin-­hsien, Etan Pa­va­va­lung of the Pai­wan tribe, Kao­hsiung-based amateur Liou Yi-lan, and the hearing-impaired Lin Wei-­syuan have attracted particularly strong interest, and are very representative of Taiwan’s arts scene.

In The Tai­nan Chronicles and Tai­chung Train Station Building: Excellence, Lee depicts a pair of noteworthy old train stations built during the Japanese colonial period. In Lee’s opinion, the railways have been indispensable to the growth of Taiwan’s civilization, and train stations have played an important role in the development of our culture and economy. The architecture of an old train station is deeply Taiwanese in character. For example, the Tai­nan train station was originally built of wood, but in 1936 it was rebuilt in ferroconcrete and faced with tiles. The new building materials and new design present a blend of classical and contemporary architecture.

An old train station, says Lee, is a shared memory for everyone living in the local area. After people have left to work or study somewhere far from home, when it’s time to come back home, they pass through the same train station by which they left. He wanted to paint the old train stations to record history, and preserve the nostalgia that swirls around such a place.

Nutrients of Breathing, by Etan Pa­va­va­lung, depicts a mother bird with a baby in her belly. The two are connected by an umbilical cord, symbolizing the fact that nature is the mother on whom we humans depend for the nourishment that enables us to grow big and strong. In our relationship with the land we live on, we must respect mother nature.

Etan Pa­va­va­lung, who hails from the village of Ta­va­ran in Ping­tung County, had his life turned upside down by Typhoon Mo­ra­kot in August 2009, which triggered massive floods that forced him and everyone else in the village to relocate to a safer place. There they remain today, longing to go back and rebuild their old village. The village—with its stone-slab houses and totemic art—provides the inspiration for his artistic work.

Director ­Huang Tsai-lang of the ­NTMoFA points out that the Art Bank’s selection criteria are different from those adopted for the Young Artist Collection, another project of the ­NTMoFA. The purpose of the Young Artist Collection is to create a repository of the early works of Taiwan’s young artists, and the selection criteria are crafted mainly with an eye to the concerns of art history. The Art Bank, by contrast, is more concerned about what members of the general public are likely to enjoy, so “the themes tend to be bright and cheerful.” In addition to artistic skill, the Art Bank must also consider whether a particular work is appropriate for leasing out, i.e., can it be easily stored, protected, and transported? Will it stand up to the wear and tear of a public space?

The first batch of art works purchased by the Art Bank cover a wide range of subject matter. City Disqualified—Ximen District (Prototype) (below), a digital image by Yuan Goang-ming, and The Truth Will Always Elude Us (above), an oil painting by Liou Yi-lan, show the breadth of the expressive possibilities of old and new media.

Where can a person find Art Bank works on display?

After the Art Bank began leasing operations, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications lent strong support by putting works on display at Taiwan’s four principal airports in Tai­pei, Tao­yuan, Tai­chung, and Kao­hsiung. In addition, leased works are also on display at the Presidential Palace, the Tai­shan Training Center of the Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training, and the Executive Yuan’s Xin­zhuang Joint Office Tower. As of January 31, 2014, the Art Bank had leased out 172 works of art.

The Art Bank project still relies at this point on government funding, but it hopes to attract corporate support in the form of donations, leasing, and adoption of selected works. Last year, nine companies in Taichung donated a total of NT$18 million, and these same companies are now working on plans to establish an “art banker club.”

Tsunamis & Tornados, by the hearing-impaired artist Lin Wei-Syuan, features a visual explosiveness that harbors an inner peacefulness.

The Art Bank concept didn’t originate in Taiwan, to be sure, but Taiwan is working to adapt the idea to local conditions. Over the past few years, our officials have been in close contact with counterparts in countries like Canada, Australia, and South Korea, which have had art banks for a number of years already (see Table).

Tony Stephens, the director of Artbank Australia, visited Taiwan last year and shared information that people here found extremely encouraging.

Stephens explained that his organization, which is part of the Australian government’s Department of Environment, Heritage, Water and the Arts, has adjusted its operating strategy as necessary over the past 30 years. To date, Artbank has collected over 10,000 works by more than 3,500 artists, including some early works by artists who have since become quite well known. All Artbank staff belong to the civil service system. The organization relied completely on government funding for its first 12 years before going financially independent in its 13th year, supporting itself with leasing revenues. Annual leasing revenues today are about A$3.5 million!

“In these times of economic hardship, Artbank is an important source of support for artists and the arts,” says Stephens, adding that even though Artbank’s collection far outstrips leasing demand, the Australian government continues to appropriate about A$1 million each year to fund further purchases.

Artbank Australia has the second largest art collection in the country, after the National Gallery of Australia, and gives the contemporary art scene there a big boost.

The Tainan Chronicles, by veteran oil painter Lee Chin-hsien, vividly evokes the historic feel of the city that was once Taiwan’s “big apple.”

The MOC had a very good idea in launching the Art Bank, and artists have responded enthusiastically, but some in the arts community are a bit worried about the program’s possible downside. One of the most widespread worries is that the works are being leased out too cheaply. It is true that the low fees may bring in more business and instill the idea in people’s minds that it’s a better deal to lease than to buy, but low leasing fees could also disrupt the private art market.

Exhibits curator Hu Yung-fen notes that a leasing fee of 0.4% may well turn out to be unsustainably cheap, and it could undercut what private firms charge for leasing, exhibiting, and consulting. It has not been easy to build up consensus in Taiwan about the need to charge a reasonable fee for art, and this meeting of the minds could now be upset.

Although the Art Bank has scored significant success in its first year of operation, many challenges remain. Once an art work has been leased out, how is the lessee to manage the display space? How does it go about controlling temperature and humidity? If a leased work is damaged, how do the parties determine who is liable? Questions such as these only come up after operations have begun.

It takes time to develop expertise in the business of art promotion. Many factors must be taken into account. The launch of Art Bank Taiwan has gone extremely well so far. Observers are now eagerly waiting to see how those managing the organization will succeed in leasing out more art to ordinary companies, so that everyday people can be regularly exposed to beauty as they go about their daily routines.

The first batch of art works purchased by the Art Bank cover a wide range of subject matter. City Disqualified—Ximen District (Prototype) (below), a digital image by Yuan Goang-ming, and The Truth Will Always Elude Us (above), an oil painting by Liou Yi-lan, show the breadth of the expressive possibilities of old and new media.