Children's Art Education Center Introduction
After five years of preparation, the Children's Art Education Center, funded by the TSMC Education and Culture Foundation and financially supported by the Taipei City Government, officially began operations on Children's Day in 2014. It launched an inaugural exhibition titled "Gift," expressing its mission as a gift to future generations. The visual signage design features geometric blocks resembling building blocks, inspired by the tubular structure of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. The window symbol signifies children's curiosity driving them to peek into the sky from a corner of the window, thus exploring a broader world. The center is based on existing spatial conditions, transforming the periphery into the core of its operations, gradually incorporating contemporary art education philosophies. Besides asserting that learning is an essential core value, since 2015 it has aimed to expand the definition of educational learning, creating new knowledge production methods and museum experiences. The traditional museum, focused on "objects" as the main subject of collections and exhibitions, is gradually shifting towards a human-centered approach. The museum not only houses a rich collection of art but also serves as a friendly space for audiences to relax, socialize, and experience art in their daily lives. It emphasizes participatory experiences, hoping that audiences will learn through interactions and discussions with peers, generating diverse possibilities for the visiting experience, and developing a new relationship between the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and its audience. Contemporary art encompasses a wealth of interdisciplinary knowledge and emphasizes critical thinking and social participation. In 2016, the education initiatives at the Children's Art Center formally transformed from exhibition concepts into "educational programs," launching one or two programs each year that combine thematic displays with creative workshops, co-curated by the center's educators and contemporary artists. In these "educational programs," museum staff not only act as intermediaries interpreting artworks but also as experience transformers. Likewise, artists are no longer merely passive invitees as creators; they can actively become builders of learning experiences. On one hand, the center's educational programs use artists as models, enabling children to understand the diverse world through the perspectives, creative thinking, and problem-solving methods of artists. On the other hand, we invite artists to collaborate with staff to discuss creating interactive installations for every educational program, transforming experiences from their own or other artists' works into learnable models, expanding audience participation from passive visual appreciation to active engagement on bodily and perceptual levels. Through participation in educational programs, audiences become active explorers of the world, accumulating visual literacy and conceptual critical thinking skills. (Source: Children's Art Education Center)
