About TAIA

With the aim of broadening the landscape of the arts industry, TAIA was founded by Serina Chen, who has received recognition from the European Festivals Association as the head of festivals for her outstanding work in festival curation. In 1998, TAIA established the first ever Taipei Arts Festival, which was followed by another successful year in 1999, creating a new benchmark for large-scale international festivals. TAIA continued on to organize Taipei International Arts Festival, becoming an important platform for the performing arts and international cultural exchange. In the following years, TAIA hosted the World Music Festival, the Taiwan Dance Workshop Festival, the Olympia Earth Games, the Arts Wonderland at Festival in the Square, and the World Theater Masters Academy, etc., each providing an integration space for cultural exchange, introductions to innovative and multidisciplinary world-class art, and inspiration for creative cultures of all origins to interact. Then with the completion of the Performing Arts Fair, TAIA also fulfilled the dream of establishing a large-scale performing arts market, becoming a nexus for exchange between the international and domestic arts.
Having achieved the goal of establishing an international platform, TAIA set its sights on actively developing its own productions. This new objective gave birth to Image in Motion Theater Company (IMT), with a focus on multimedia theater, and the creation of Not a Love Story, @Dream, and Chanceformation of Life, etc. These productions focused on bringing multimedia technology into the performing arts, and originating a new type of technology infused performance. In 2011, IMT went a step further by utilizing interactive technology in an improvisational performance, cooperating with the Industrial Technology Research Institute to realize Fantasy Warp. Then in 2014, IMT introduced science and technology into the realm of children’s musical by creating the 3D multimedia fantasy musical, Franz and Friends’ Voyage Undersea.
Over the years TAIA has collaborated with Wonders of Art in producing large-scale musicals and elaborate outdoor productions with the mission of creating a new type of interactive performance experience, developing and promoting new forms of performance art, and actively bringing artistic creation to the international community. In 2002, the classic painting Night Revels of Han Xizai, which was housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing, was brought to life in a live performance with music and dancing. In 2007, The Feast of Han Xizai was performed in the Hall of Great Supremacy Square, using immersive theater to present Night Revels of Han Xizai. TAIA was the first local performing group to perform in the Palace Museum in Beijing in 500 years. Then in 2006, TAIA created the Chinese musical masterpiece In Love with Carmen starring Taiwanese pop star A-mei. 2010 marks the year TAIA and Wonders of Art were invited to produce the thematic show of the World Expo Shanghai 2010, Window of the City, a large-scale performance spectacle with unique audio and visual effects. Window of the City was performed more than 500 times in 184 days to more than one million audience members, who marveled at the outstanding fusion of humanity, technology, and art, and won the accolades of viewers the world over. Finally in 2017, Taiwan’s third national theatre, the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Wei Wu Ying) opened its doors to the fanfare of TAIA’s outdoor audiovisual lights show, The First Seeds: Memories of the Banyan Trees, the largest performance of its kind in Asia. In five days, more than 250,000 were able to experience the wonders of this innovative performance.
TAIA has continuously put forth its best efforts to give art and artists a spotlight on the international stage. In 2016, TAIA was commissioned by the Taipei City government as the master planner and producer of the Taipei Summer Universiade Cultural Events, and put together over 20 different kinds and over 200 performances. The result of these events was a successful integration of sports and the arts industries in a cross-disciplinary masterpiece. TAIA’s founder, Serina Chen, also continues to advocate for the establishment of cultural policy and support for research on various cultural and creative industries, as in the case of the planning of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Huashan 1914 Creative Park. Together with other arts enthusiasts, TAIA will continue to promote cultural forums, establish networks for art exhibitions, host seminars for art professionals, work for consensus on the integration of the cultural environment and the arts development, and work hard for the improvement of the arts ecosystem.