Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts

The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (zh-t|t=高雄市立美術館) is located in Gushan District (鼓山區), the northwestern district of Kaohsiung city (高雄). It is founded by The Kaohsiung City Government and is administrated by the Kaohsiung Bureau of Cultural Affairs since 2003. It occupies about 8.15 acres and starts using in 1994. It is the third public arts museum in Taiwan after the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum were founded.

In addition, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts is a part of the Neiweipi Cultural Park (內惟埤文化園區) , which occupies about 40 hectares. The first stage of Neiweipi Cultural Park’s construction started in 1989 and completed in 1994. During this phase, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts was completed. Afterwards, the developments of the entire area such as entrance plaza, sculpture park, and ecology park are kept carrying on and let the art museum itself become more attractive by the surroundings.

The inner surroundings

*The first floor :
Lobby is an independent open space which contains a stationer, a service counter and computer information system.

Sculpture Hall is a core of the Museum of Fine Art and the beginning of visits for tourists. It plays an important role as a central link of many exhibition rooms. The height of Sculpture Hall is about four floors. Sunlight come in from a large skylight to make sculptures look more natural instead of being completely exanimate.

The galleries 101, 102, and 103 locate on the right side of the sculpture hall. They can be used for some general exhibitions and especially for special international exhibitions. The galleries 104 and 105 locate on the other side of the sculpture hall and the ceiling are designed with two stories high. This feature provides visitors with different angles such as looking down at works. These two rooms are usually used for displaying sculptures.

*The second floor :Galleries on the second floor are mainly for exhibiting works which with large size.

*The third floor :The main feature of galleries is that they can be used for displaying precious works such as calligraphy. This kind of works is supposed to be preserve in rooms which have special climate control. That is, the control system must keep moisture and temperature stable no matter how climate changes.

*The fourth floor :The galleries here are mobile because they can be divided into different sizes and space.

Outdoors space of the museum

*Perimeter :Perimeter is the first impression that the visitors here will have. Since the Museum of Fine Arts itself has function of both leisure and art, the designers of perimeter decided to put emphasis on presenting sculptural atmosphere. This atmosphere makes people feel relaxed and connect the ease feeling with the art itself.

*Park Walkways and Facilities :After entering the park through the entrance, visitors can easily see signs which point out the way to the Museum and leisure facilities. Moreover, rest areas, public restrooms, and seats locate in proper sites aside the Park Walkways.

*Semi-Circular Outdoor Plaza and Covered Walkway :The design of this round plaza is for relevant activities. The covered walkway provides a direct path to the educational spaces inside the museum such as studio classrooms and auditorium. In this way, the inside and outside activities are connected.

*Sculpture ParkThe sculpture park is composed of the lawn which behind the administrative area and the southwestern park. And it’s chiefly constructed and developed during the first phrase. With various types of scenery such as lawns and groves, the sculpture park can display different types of sculptures according to different settings. Though most of the sculptures locate in the sculpture park, some are arranged in the ecology park.

*Ecology parkThe ecology park is composed of a marsh, a lake, a small island, a forest area, an observation platform, and footpaths. With the concept of ecological restoration, the designers of scenery have established the scenery which doesn’t prevent creatures from inhabitation or breeding.

Service information

*Open time and TransportationThe Museum opens from Tuesday to Sunday during 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and closes on Mondays. Visitors can take bus 205 (once per ten minutes), 73 (once per hour), and 57 (from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., once per hour on holidays)

*Tour servicesIt concludes record tours, scheduled tours, tours-by-appointment, tours of computers and on the air. First, the records tours are made for some specific exhibitions. Visitor can borrow tapes, players, and earphones with ID identification. The advantage of it is that this kind of tour is for “individual”. Second, the scheduled tours are on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Visitors don’t have to make reservation and the number isn’t limited. Third, tours-by-appointment are provided to groups and there are English, Japanese, Mandarin, and Taiwanese versions. This kind of tour should be scheduled before at least two weeks. Fourth, visitors can take advantage of computers inside the museum to check information of exhibitions. The last method of tour is the program "You and the Arts" which is presented in Kaohsiung Broadcasting Station on Saturdays morning at 11:00.

*RestaurantFor one thing, the Museum restaurant locates the portside outdoor performance area. It provides visitors here with light meals, snacks, and different kinds of beverages. It opens from 9:00a.m. to 10:00p.m. For another, there is a coffee shop which locates besides the plaza of fountain. It also offers visitors various sorts of snacks and beverages.

*Art libraryThere are about 3,000 videotapes of arts and near 20,000 books of diverse art-related materials in this library and all these recourses can be used by the public for leisure or researches. Moreover, there are some copy machines inside for people to use. If visitors want to photocopy any material, they are supposed to apply for allowance to the administrative personnel. The Museum's art opens from 9:30 am to 4:50 pm except for Mondays and national holidays.

ee also

* Taipei Fine Arts Museum