Weiwuying is partnering with yet another international heavyweight! Today (January 24), Weiwuying has formally announced it is forming a strategic alliance with the globally renowned Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, which will allow Weiwuying to learn from the latter's over 50 years of valuable experience in Aesthetic Education and thus enhance arts engagement with the Taiwanese public. Lincoln Center's Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer Shanta THAKE has come to Taiwan to kick off the collaboration and to attend the 2026 International Forum and Workshop on Creative Engagement on January 26 and 27. Coupled with the workshops from January 22 (Thu.) to 25 (Sun.), 16 experts from Taiwan, the US, the UK, Germany, and Singapore as well as representatives from numerous Taiwanese arts venues and performers (over 300 people in all), are at the event discussing how art can connect with the community, build relationships, and encourage dialogue.

The purpose of arts engagement, a core of operations viewed with the highest priority by the world's biggest art centers and an important index of their sustainable development, is to create deeper connections between art and the public. Over the past two years, Weiwuying has initiated collaboration with the Public Theater in New York and the International Teaching Artists Collaborative. Educational philosopher Maxine GREENE, who worked at Lincoln Center as a philosopher-in-residence for over three decades and endowed it with philosophical depth, believed that Aesthetic Education surpasses the simple instruction of technique: art is not just about appreciation but a means of awakening perception and engaging with community. This guiding pedagogy continues to shape Lincoln Center's inquiry-based, learner-centric approach to arts education half a century later. 

Weiwuying General and Artistic Director CHIEN Wen-pin says, "Works of art are boundless resources for learning. Actively participating in art cultivates curiosity, fosters autonomy, and ignites creativity. This is precisely why Weiwuying holds to the core principle that engagement is just as important for the future as performances are for the present. This alliance with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will provide a stronger theoretical base for Weiwuying's arts engagement endeavors. We don't want art to be something only experienced at venues, but to be brought into the community to serve as a medium that stimulates perception and dialogue in society, in turn making Weiwuying an art center for everyone, supporting people facing challenges, and producing a strong influence on society."

According to Shanta THAKE, Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, "Art is a powerful tool for learning and connecting across cultures. Weiwuying's commitment to arts education reflects our shared belief that the arts are essential to our daily lives and core to our individual and collective wellbeing. Through this collaboration, we look forward to exploring how Aesthetic Education sparks curiosity and imaginative thinking in audiences, educators, and students of all ages."

With the support of the Goethe-Institut Taipei and the event vision of "Empower the Future," this year's forum is focusing on community engagement, continuing the exploration of the relationship between the arts and society that took place during the two previous events. For the two-day forum, speakers and panelists from different cultural contexts will progress along the three levels of art experience, art engagement, and art empowerment in exploring experiences and challenges in artistic practice within communities and probing how to give rise to continual, sustainable cultural dialogue and creativity in everyday life.

Aside from the two days of the forum, the four days of workshops provide experiences from abroad that local community engagement workers, teaching artists, and creative engagement producers may learn from, and attendees are guided into thinking about how to design more inclusive, sustainable, and influential community art programs. Led by professionals from the English National Ballet, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Sistema Europe, and the Staatsschauspiel Dresden, the workshops examine concepts and practices of arts engagement from various perspectives. For instance, the English National Ballet is putting on an accessible workshop focused on those with dementia and Parkinson's and their caregivers to share their experiences in arts participation among inclusive communities.

For more information, please visit the Weiwuying website at www.npac-weiwuying.org and Lincoln Center at www.lincolncenter.org/education.