The Ministry of Culture (MOC) launched the Preparatory Office for the National Museum of Modern Art Tainan (MOMA Tainan) on Mar. 23. The plaque unveiling ceremony was attended by Minister of Culture Li Yuan, Deputy Minister of Culture Sue Wang (王時思), Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), MOMA Tainan director Huang Hung-wen (黃宏文), and other distinguished guests in attendance.
Minister Li noted that since the initiation of the “Reconstruction of Taiwan’s Art History (重建臺灣藝術史)” project in 2018, the MOC has acquired 867 works by early Taiwanese artists, collected approximately 90,000 archival materials, and restored 8,000 artifacts. He added that many veteran artists have expressed their willingness to donate their works as part of the national collections, underscoring the urgency of establishing a modern art museum in Taiwan.
The MOC highlighted that families of pioneering Taiwanese artists such as Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波), Kuo Po-chuan (郭柏川), Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), Pu Tian-sheng (蒲添生), and others, have signed an agreement to donate their works in support of MOMA Tainan.
The establishment of MOMA Tainan was made possible through the MOC’s continuous efforts in cross-departmental negotiations. As a result, the Tainan City Government agreed to allocate Building 2 of the Tainan Art Museum as the site for the new museum. MOMA Tainan’s permanent exhibition will focus on Taiwanese modern art from 1895 to 1960.
