Government policies and fine arts museums in Taiwan : the impact of government policies on museum personnel and finance

Following rapid economic development since 1970s, political transformation and social reformation in the 1980s, Taiwan has become increasingly concerned with its arts and culture. The main purpose of this research is to find out in what ways Taiwanese government can help the public fine arts museum in their personnel and financial managements to substantiate their subsistence and development in order to ensure the preservation and development of arts and culture. Therefore the main subjects of this thesis are arts and culture, fine arts museum and government along with the emphasis on tackling museum personnel and finance problems. This research has offered an overview of the cultural development in Taiwan, the personnel and finance problems of museums in practice. It has also justifies the importance of arts and culture, the values and functions of fine arts museums, the necessity of government intervention. Most of all, with the inspection on the policies and programmes developed and applied in different countries, this research attempts to provide possible and better solutions for Taiwanese Governments and fine arts museum. In order to answer my research questions: Why should the government support fine arts museums? In what ways have the government policies impacted upon the roles and functions of fine arts museums in Taiwan? What are the main problems experienced by the fine art museums in Taiwan and in what form of relationship that government might help to ameliorate them? I have applied two qualitative methods: document and in-depth interview collecting and analysis. This research has reviewed the relevant theories from a broad range of disciplines including politics, economics, sociology, cultural studies and museum studies to explore the key themes founded in the documents and in-depth interviews, such as government intervention vs. museum autonomy and centralisation vs. decentralisation