Weaving the Relationship between Textile History and Audience − How This is Realised at Honggah Museum Frankie Su
Fig. 1 Honggah Museum located in the Beitou area, Taipei / 2008
Honggah Museum was founded in 1999 in Beitou, Taipei by the Chew’s Culture Foundation. The Museum has always been seen as an art space for promoting contemporary art, and at the same time as the custodian of an abundant collection of embroidery art, collected by the founder based on his personal interests. Andrew Chew began to build his collection after he visited Hangzhou and Hunan in the early 1970s. He developed close relationships with both cities (both recognised nationally by China Intangible Cultural Heritage for their embroidery), and their institutions. The Chew collection has become one of the main collectors of Chinese modern embroidery (Figs. 1-2). Mr. Chew then devoted himself to preserving the precious embroidery artworks he had collected from China and promoted them by providing a professional showcase in the form
of the Honggah Museum − and by ensuring that museum admission was free to members of the public for over twenty years. Exhibitions, campaigns, inter-disciplinary performances, and educational programmes have been developed. The museum provides for art appreciation in a venue of quality, as well as sowing the seeds of art, not only for the local community in Beitou, but also for audiences from all over Taiwan. M r. C h e w w a s a l s o d e d i c a t e d p r o m o t i n g contemporary art, and the Honggah Museum also serves as a platform for the showcase of contemporary art via regular themed events such as the biennial “Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition” and solo exhibitions of emerging artists from Taiwan and abroad. As the operations team of Honggah Museum, we have always faced the challenge of bringing in a larger audience. Having in-depth analysis based 117
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