Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts

The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, known locally as Gaomei, opened in nineteen ninety four as the third public art museum in Taiwan, after those in Taipei and Taichung, and it is the leading art institution of the south of the island. It stands at the north west edge of the city in the Neiweipi Cultural Park, some forty hectares of reclaimed wetland with a lake, lawns, a sculpture park and an ecological reserve, so a visit is as much a walk in the open air as a tour of galleries. The museum collects and shows Taiwanese art with a southern emphasis, from Japanese-era painting to contemporary installation, and pays particular attention to the art of the Austronesian peoples of Taiwan and the Pacific.

The main building is a broad, low block of dark red brick and stone set on a wide plaza, with a great top-lit hall inside from which the galleries open on three floors. Exhibitions change through the year, so there is no fixed route; the hall itself, with its calligraphy banner and sculpture, is the one constant. Across the park is the Children's Museum of Art, the first independent art museum for children in Taiwan, and beside the light rail station is the newer Neiwei Arts Center, a white flying-saucer of a building that the museum also runs.

A first-time visitor should give the park as much time as the galleries: walk around the lake, look for the herons in the wetland, and find the sculptures scattered among the trees.