Art Museums Aren’t Just Buildings—Tugou Rural Art & Farming Fun

Text by MOOK Scenic Spots Family Travel Life Network Editorial Team, compiled and reported

The 2014 Tugou Rural Art Museum officially opened on October 4. Visiting the exhibition in Tugouli, a remote small rural village located in the northernmost part of Tainan City’s Houpi District, might leave you puzzled when you don’t see a physical art museum building—but in fact, the moment you set foot in this village, you’ve already entered the museum.

With the philosophy of “The village is the art museum, and the art museum is the village!” for over ten years, Tugou has tried to use art as a direction for community development. In 2005, Tainan National University of the Arts moved into Tugou, allowing the Tugou Rural Art Museum to use the entire village space as an exhibition venue—rice fields as canvases, agricultural products as artworks, and farmers as artists. Everything in sight, whether village houses, warehouses, or farmsteads, serves as an exhibition space. After 10 years of community development and revitalization, Tugou Rural Art Museum has successfully built its reputation and become an annual highlight for the rural area.

Tugou Rural Art Museum is not just one building, but an entire rural area—not a scenic spot, but a humanistic rural community. Tugou Rural Art Museum uses the rural area as its unit, rotating exhibits with the seasons, with every villager serving as a volunteer. It aims to transform “hardworking farmers into elegant farmers,” while exploring another possibility of integrating art with rural development.