Tainan City, located in southern Taiwan, is the oldest city in Taiwan. A 20-minute bus ride from Tainan City's Sanhwa Station reveals a campus surrounded by nature. The campus is located in a quiet countryside. Befitting its name as an art university, students' works are installed throughout the school. This school is different from other art schools. We have created a program called 'Art Administration' that goes beyond producing simple 'works of art' and manages them by utilizing them, and has been running it for nearly 5 years.
Arts administration emerged in the late 1960s when American universities began introducing related departments. Students who graduate from this department will work as management and administrators in various arts fields such as theaters, museums, and opera houses.
How Tainan's small national university is revitalizing the region
Arts administration departments, which specialize in training art managers or arts managers rather than art creators, are now established in over 400 universities around the world. Among them, Taiwan is worth mentioning in that it has a similar cultural and historical background to Korea, but is also experiencing the problem of regional disappearance. Last August, <Danbi News> visited the Department of Arts Administration at Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan and reported on its current status.
Tainan, which embraces Taiwan's long history, has a total of 555 ruins. The Tainan city government has also put considerable effort into cultural preservation projects. Tainan National University of the Arts established the Department of Arts Administration in its graduate school in 2019 to take advantage of the regional characteristics. Ten new students are admitted to this course, which is operated as a master's program, every year.
Xu Wenlou (33) is also studying for a master's degree at the Department of Arts Administration at Tainan National University of Arts. He is also a staff member at the 921 Earthquake Education Center in Taichung City, about two hours away by car from Tainan.
At 1 a.m. on September 21, 1999, Guangfu National Elementary and Middle School (簡稱光復中小學), located on the outskirts of Taichung City, collapsed due to an earthquake. Instead of removing the remains of the broken building, the government renovated it to create a park, which has become a representative tourist attraction in Taichung.
Mr. Xu worked at this park before entering graduate school, but became more immersed in his work while studying for a master's degree in arts administration. He is learning how to analyze data related to culture, art, heritage, etc., and manage a culture-related organization. These days, he is conducting research on the development of local parks, and he will continue to use the knowledge he learned at school to better develop the exhibition hall at 921 Park, he said in an interview with Danbi News.
Those studying arts administration usually work at local arts organizations, like Xu Wenlou. Of these, 70% are engaged in fields directly related to art. They study various fields related to the arts and apply them to practice through various subjects provided by the Department of Arts Administration.
Students from all over the region also come to the university to study. This is Chan-jong Lin (50). He is a nuclear medicine doctor at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital and also works as a curator at the Hakjiajie Palace Temple located in Shujiao District, Tainan City. At this temple, Mr. Lin is in charge of the exhibition and planning of Taiwan's ceramic craftsman Jiao Zhitao (交趾陶).
Jiaozitao is a decoration mainly used in Buddhist temples in Taiwan. Mr. Lin thought that more specialized study was needed to study this in more depth and inform more people. At the Department of Arts Administration at Tainan National University of Arts, he learned how to analyze and express art and culture through data. His dream is to expand the local cultural market by promoting works of art that maintain local traditions to the public.
Arts administration beginning to gain weight in the arts field
Professor Jane Chang (60), dean of the arts administration program at this university, explained the three elements that form the basis of arts administration. First, it is interdisciplinary, that is, an interdisciplinary approach. The idea is to study arts administration by encompassing multiple disciplines rather than just one discipline. Second, collaboration, that is, cooperation. The goal is to research the right direction for arts administration through cooperation between various fields such as administration, businesses, and universities. Third, connectography is a new word meaning ‘connection.’ Due to the advancement of technology, all of the world's human resources and data are connected, and arts administration is also actively utilizing this. In the end, arts administration can be said to be a specialized subject that studies and masters multiple disciplines and areas together to solve problems in the arts and the region.
In fact, the Department of Arts Administration at Tainan National University of the Arts also opened a variety of classes covering technology, management, and law. Through this, students study practical knowledge about arts administration. Professor Jane Chang said, “Over the past 10 years, arts administration departments have been opened at many universities around the world,” and added, “Arts administration’s share in the arts industry will continue to grow.”
Domestic arts administration education is just taking its first steps
In comparison, Korea's professional education in arts administration is still at a rudimentary stage. Yeungnam University is the only university that has opened a specialized and intensive curriculum under the name of ‘Arts Administration.’ Graduates of the Department of Arts Administration at Yeungnam University, which opened in 1998, are working at art museums, performance halls, art centers, and art and culture foundations in the surrounding regions, including Gyeongbuk and Gyeongnam.
Professor Wonjung Yoo (47), who heads the Department of Arts Administration at this university, said, “There is a very high correlation between regional development and the arts.” In particular, Professor Yoo emphasized that expanding cultural arts programs for local residents is a key element of regional development. Domestic local governments also plan various cultural and artistic programs and events. The problem is that the person handling the matter is not a professional arts administrator. In most cases, local government officials plan various cultural and artistic events or entrust the work to planners from other regions who do not know the local situation.
The situation in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, which has hosted the Jecheon International Music and Film Festival every year since 2005, is not much different. People from other regions who have been commissioned or commissioned by the local government hold a brief event and then leave Jecheon. Yoo Won-jung, a professor of arts administration at Yeungnam University, said the reason was, “It is because there are no professional personnel in the area to run cultural events.” However, Professor Yoo pointed out that the management of local festivals, ceremonies, events, and cultural heritage should not continue to be left to people in other regions. Rather, he suggested, “Each region should train professional personnel who can understand the region’s identity and plan it as cultural and artistic content.” The more local governments try to overcome the era of regional extinction through various cultural and artistic contents, the more they need professional manpower who studied arts administration.
