In light of celebrating its’ 20th anniversary, Taipei Wanfang center for disabled young people (Wanfang) has organized an art exhibition for disabled artists at Taipei’s Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, starting from this Tuesday(Apr. 11) until next Wednesday (Apr. 19).
The exhibition, “Formosa Eden- exhibition of disabled artists”, is aimed to unfold visitors’ eyes and show the truly unique natural beauty of Taiwan. Not only the artists, but also everyone who lives on this land have benefited and inspired by Taiwan’s rich cultural and geographical characteristics.
The exhibition collected nearly 150 artworks, including oil painting, ink wash painting, and ceramic pottery, from 41 disabled artists. Among them, 6 artists accomplished a large ink wash painting “Greenery of Taiwan” together under the instruction of their teacher, Guo-Quan Huang. The significance of this painting has stunned visitors, and it also demonstrates that no physical or emotional disability can limit people in doing anything.
Xiu, one of the 6 artists created “Greenery of Taiwan”, received art training and education from Wanfang when it first initiated the project. Xiu suffers from severe multiple disabilities. Joining this educational project had transformed her life since then. It has not only given Xiu a chance to explore and discover her potential in art, but also relieved her father’s concerns. Xiu has fallen in love with art and worked harder than anyone for almost 20 years, despite the fact that she often has difficulty coordinating her muscles, as well as her deformed joints. To date, Xiu is an excellent disabled artist. She has created more than 100 pieces of artworks, earned multiple awards and recognition in several art competitions and has rich exhibition experiences.
Wanfang transformed into a day care center in 1993, offering not only day care service, but also assistance in self-care independence training and art therapy. With a diverse selection of course choices, different group of disabled service users have benefited from Wanfang that in the past decade, a total of 1,000 pieces of artworks have been created. Every participating student will receive a tailor-made course based on their physical and emotional needs.
Wanfang expects to make everyone with disability feels like home in the center, said the deputy executive manager, Wen-Bing Lin.
In the future, it wishes to develop artists’ creation to a cultural-creative brand and establish an art-gallery space.
This time, the 20th anniversary “Formosa Eden” exhibition breaks new ground in the sense that it invites everyone including the service users and artists to participate in it; to express their feelings towards the artworks or introduce themselves, hoping that this way of interaction can create an opportunity to bridge the gap and form an understanding between publics and people with disabilities. Furthermore, in order to implement the spirit of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) – equal participation in social life for people with disabilities – the exhibition organizer cooperates with high-tech assistive devices company and offers visitors sound touch reading pens credited with audio description function.
