“Spotlight Taiwan Project”, an agreement of cultural collaboration between the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Five Colleges, Incorporated will be signed by Ms. Anne Hung, Director-General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston (TECO-Boston), and Mr. Neal Abraham, Executive Director of Five Colleges Incorporated, at 11 a.m. on Tuesday July 1, 2014, in Boston. The cooperative program, initiated by the ROC’s Ministry of Culture, will highlight Taiwan’s culture through a variety of Taiwanese performances at college campuses and local schools in western Massachusetts during the upcoming school year.

The 18-month collaboration, in partnership with the Asian Arts and Culture Program at the University of Massachusetts’ Fine Arts Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, will bring to the area three highly selective artistic companies – including music, puppetry and theater, and dance. In addition, the Five Colleges area community groups will organize local celebrations of Taiwan’s culture such as a Chinese New Year festival and dragon boat races.

Local news media is invited to attend the signing ceremony which will take place at the TECO-Boston Office located at 99 Summer St., Suite 801, in Boston, MA.

For more information, please contact John Chu at (O) 617-259-1358 or via email at yungchangchu95@gmail.com.

Signing ceremony:
Time: 11 a.m., Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Place: TECO-Boston, 99 Summer Street, Suite 801, Boston, MA 02110

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About Spotlight Taiwan Project:

“This is an opportunity for Taiwan to connect with the world through our culture,” says Lung Ying-tai, Taiwan’s minister of culture. The Spotlight Taiwan Project, with Taiwanese contemporary art as its subject, is an effort to share Taiwanese perspectives of history, philosophy, mass culture, art, literature and film through lectures, artist talks, seminars, workshops, performances, exhibitions, Taiwanese film festivals and art festivals.

Sponsored by Samuel Yen-Liang Ying, leader of Taiwan’s Ruentex Financial Group, Spotlight Taiwan is establishing collaborations with 40 major universities and related institutions around the world to highlight the artistry and richness of Taiwanese culture.

In addition to the campuses of the Five Colleges consortium - Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst - the institutions that are participating in Spotlight Taiwan Project also include: United States: University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Berkeley, George Washington University, University of Scranton and University of Texas at Austin; United Kingdom: University of London, University of Edinburgh, Birkbeck University of London and University of Surrey; Germany: Heidelberg University and University of Tübingen; Japan: Tokyo University of the Arts and Japan Yomiuri NTV Culture Center; Singapore: Nanyang Technological University. Additional institutions are expected to participate in the four-year program.

“Taiwan, as a diverse, open-minded civil society, is a place rich in critical thought and the arts, with a deep appreciation for the beauty of everyday life,” says Minister Lung. Through overseas cultural centers and “Taiwan Academies” that will be established in locations around the world, the Ministry of Culture plans to introduce to communities the Taiwanese ability to integrate tradition and innovation, and combine the classic with the modern.