The Conservation and Preservation Project of the Collections from the Department of Fine Arts, NTNU

The Department of Fine Arts of National Taiwan Normal University has been established for more than 60 years since its establishment in 1947. It is the Department of Fine Arts with the longest history and the most complete education system in Taiwan, and it is also the cradle of many art masters. Thanks to the tradition that artworks from splendid teachers and students who won the top 3 prizes of the graduation exhibition were collected, the Department of Fine Arts has owned a number of precious works spanning half a century and they are the youthful creations and growth paths of many contemporary art masters. Those collections have not only become the most precious resources of NTNU but also the important testimonies in the construction of Taiwan's modern art history.

In 2006, in order to preserve and make full use of the collection, a project was led by Professor Pan-Song LIN, the chairman of the Department of Fine Arts then with the strong support of the president, Dr. GUO Yi-Xiong. Moreover, a special fund for the university affairs was allocated successively to organize, inventory, catalog and restore the long-term disregarded collection. “The Conservation and Preservation Project of the Collections from the Department of Fine Arts, NTNU” was initiated, so that some representative artworks with damages can be rescued and preserved in a timely manner. Furthermore, several publications, exhibitions, activities were released along with the Project.

Through the implementation of the project and activities, this batch of collection fully demonstrates its precious epitome of the times no matter in Taiwan’s local art research, education, materials and techniques for art creation, and artworks conservation. It also represents as an important documents for the research of art history and theory.

The Establishment of the Research Center for Conservation of Cultural Relics

In 2009, LIN Chang-Te, the Dean of the College of Art then, and SU Hsiang-Fa, the Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts, advocated for the university’s development in conservation of culture relics in order to increase its competitiveness in the field and to make full use of the existing precious resources in the university. Moreover, they strived for the sponsorship from the Ministry of Education for the Restructuring Plan of National Taiwan Normal University and appointed Professor CHANG Yuan-Feng to undertake the responsibility of planning a professional conservation studio and education programmes. The Research Center for Conservation of Cultural Relics was officially opened on October 22, 2011. The center initially focused upon the conservation of East Asian paintings and paper-based artworks, but our center has also engaged in the development of oil painting conservation since 2010 under the present mentorship of Professor UTADA Shinsuke and Professor KIJIMA Takayasu from the Conservation Course Oil Painting Laboratory, Graduate Department of Conservation, Tokyo University of the Arts.