ISSUE 7

I was often asked the biggest difference between the Eastern and Western arts. In fact, I could response without hesitation, ‘different logic, different culture’, which I think it is an irresponsible and meaningless answer. So I start to think about the answer in a more pragmatic way. Throughout various parts of Chinese arts and British arts, logical and cultural differences do lead to certain differences between the East and the West. However, among all these differences, I found a particularly interesting part—the operation of arts foundation and the governmental support for arts in the UK. Compared with other arts sections, such as arts education, arts auction, art sales and other areas, China has rapid development in the field of arts market due to the globalization, even many of the regulations have been established with international standards, yet in terms of non-profit arts support is still under development. Therefore in this issue, we will introduce various cultural development organisations and non-profit arts foundations in the UK, so as to reflect one essential part of the British art system.

很多人問我，東西方藝術領域中最大的差別是什麼，其實我可以不假思索的回答說“邏輯不同，文化差異”，但這樣的回答的確是極其不負責任的，而且毫無建設意義，於是乎我開始嘗試用比較務實的態度來尋求這個問題的答案。縱觀中英藝術領域的各個部份，我們會發現每一處都能找到東西方邏輯和文化差異導致的不同，但是在這些不同之處當中，有一個部份非常有趣，這就是英國的藝術基金會和政府對藝術的專項扶持機構的運作。對比藝術領域的其他部份，比如藝術教育、拍賣、藝術品銷售等領域，由於全球化市場的存在而導致了中國藝術領域在這些擁有“市場”的方面發展較快，很多規則也已經與國際接軌了，但在“非盈利”的藝術發展保障方面卻建樹不多。因此，在這一期雜誌中，我們將為觀眾介紹英國的文化發展協會及非盈利藝術基金會的方方面面，以最直觀的方法來展示英國藝術體制中重要的一環。