Mei-Fang Kuo, Hsiao-Tung Su
Mei-Fang Kuo
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan
Dr. Mei-Fang Kuo received Ph.D. in Architecture History and Theory from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in 2007, and has worked at the University Museum since then. She is currently associate curator.
Based on these studies, has completed more than 16 exhibitions. Two of these are international cooperation -- with the Museum of Asian Art, University of Malaya; and with three major museums in the Czech Republic. This exhibition had won the second place of UMAC AWARD 2017.
She had worked as assistant curator at National Museum of Natural Sciences (NMNS), Taiwan from 1986 to 1993. she had been involved and in charge of the permanent exhibition of the NMNS Phase Ⅲ exhibition Hall. She also led the project of studying and reconstruction of the “Astronomical Water Clock”. Which has become the major exhibition item in NMNS.
Since joining NCKUM, Dr. Kuo has been responsible for a variety of research and exhibition projects and collections. She is currently associate curator, and offer few courses including “Method and Theory in Museology”, “Introduction to Museology”, “Guiding to Tainan history and landscape”.
Her research interests include museum architecture and exhibition, cultural heritage, Taiwan aboriginal architecture, and traditional Chinese architecture.
Hsiao-Tung “Charlotte” Su
National Cheng Kung University Museum
Tainan, Taiwan
Ms. Hsiao-Tung “Charlotte” Su received M.A. Degree in the Institute of Creative Industries Design, NCKU in 2013, and has participated in the Rijksmuseum Summer School Program (the Netherlands) in 2018. Having worked closely with Dr. Mei-Fang Kuo for various curatorial and exhibition projects since 2011, including “I C Taiwan” held in the Czech Republic, which had won the second place of UMAC AWARD 2017. She is currently working in the NCKU Museum as a Project Assistant for the museum’s ongoing serial exhibition: The History of Engineering Education in Taiwan.
Limitations of Reusing Old Buildings as Museums—the Case of the National Cheng Kung University Museum
During the late 20th century, Taiwan has experienced a trend of preserving and repurposing historic sites and buildings as museums. Similar practices can be seen in the city of Tainan with buildings such as the National Museum of Taiwan Literature (Tainan Prefectural Hall), the Tainan Judicial Museum (Tainan District Court), and the Tainan Art Museum (Tainan City Police Department). Following this trend, the National Cheng Kung University Museum was established in 2008 by utilizing the former administration building of the Tainan Technical College (the predecessor of NCKU), which is also a municipal historic site.
Given its historic background and rich history, various constraints would be expected when utilizing the building's interior space for exhibitions. Issues include the complex network of electrical wiring installed in the ceilings, the preservation of integrity for most of the architectural elements, including both interior and exterior walls, doors and windows and flooring, and compromises made during the installation of air conditioning systems.
Recently, as the building of NCKU Museum is undergoing renovation, other campus spaces such as the old Main library Building established in the 1960s, which is also a historical building, have been borrowed to host exhibitions, which the curatorial team had to overcome several complex challenges ranging from retaining the "form follows function" architectural principle of the building to making compromises with the regulations and policies of the institute currently resides and manages the building.
In this article, we wish to discuss the strategies and responses of our curatorial team in dealing with exhibition spaces within these two different types of buildings.
Museum exhibition, Historical building, reuse and regeneration/ revitalization, Building form and function