About TAIA

With the aim of broadening the landscape of the arts industry, TAIA was founded by Serina Chen, who was recognized by the European Festivals Association as one of the world's leading festival curators. 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 went on to organize the 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., bringing together international cultural exchange, introducing innovative, multidisciplinary world-class art, and inspiring creative collaboration across cultures. Through the Taiwan Performing Arts Fair, which it planned and organized, 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, among others. These productions focused on bringing multimedia technology into the performing arts, and set a new benchmark for technology-infused performance. In 2011, IMT went a step further by bringing interactive technology into theater, working with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to create the interactive multimedia theater piece Fantasy Warp. Then in 2014, IMT introduced science and technology into the realm of children’s musicals 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. In 2006, TAIA created the Chinese musical masterpiece In Love with Carmen starring Taiwanese pop star A-mei. In 2010, 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. In 2017, Taiwan’s third national theatre, the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Wei Wu Ying) opened with TAIA’s outdoor audiovisual light show, The First Seeds: Memories of the Banyan Trees, the largest performance of its kind in Asia. Over five days and 15 performances, more than 250,000 people experienced this innovative show.

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, presenting more than 200 performances across over 20 programs. 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, such as 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, build consensus on the cultural environment and arts development, and work to strengthen the arts ecosystem.