About Founder

Margaret Shiu (蕭麗虹) was born in British Hong Kong in 1946 and graduated in 1969 from the University of California, Berkeley, with a major in Economic Development and a minor in European and American Art History. In 1976, she moved to Taiwan with her family and began engaging with contemporary art, initially through small-scale art collections. Additionally, Margaret gradually ventured into ceramic arts. She was also active in activities of art groups such as the Studio of Contemporary Art (SOCA, 現代藝術工作室) and IT Park(伊通公園). Her early works focused on the texture of porcelain clay and highlighted the aesthetics of nature. In her later works, she shifted her focus to the human condition with more diverse themes, materials, and techniques.

In 1995, Margaret leased an unused chicken coop from her husband's family and founded Bamboo Curtain Studio(BCS, 竹圍工作室) together with artists Fang Marvin-Minto(范姜明道) and Chen Cheng Hsun(陳正勳). Originally a shared ceramic studio for the three, BCS featured a large gas kiln and retained one building as an exhibition space. BCS started with the "Nomadic Museum (游移美術館)" project and became one of Taiwan's key platforms for avant-garde art experimentation. Meanwhile, Margaret was also concerned with the development of Taiwan's overall art and culture environment. She participated in the campaign for Huashan Creative Park(華山藝文特區) and was involved in the formation of the Association of Culture Environment Reform Taiwan(中華民國藝術文化環境改造協會), the Taiwan Women's Art Association(TWAA, 台灣女性藝術協會), and the Association of the Visual Arts in Taiwan(AVAT, 台灣視覺藝術協會).

Drawing from her international experiences, Margaret decided to open BCS to both domestic and international artists for residency and exchange, establishing it as the first privately operated international artist village in Taiwan. In 1998, she was commissioned by the Council for Cultural Affairs(文建會) to publish Taiwan's first research report on international artist residencies and villages. Subsequently, Margaret actively led the younger generation to participate in the annual meetings of international artist villages, thereby broadening Taiwan's global perspective on artist residency programs. She contributed herself as a cultural activist and was instrumental in the establishment of the Taipei Artist Village (TAV, 台北國際藝術村) and later promoted the formation of the Taiwan Art Space Alliance (TASA, 台灣藝文空間連線).

Margaret’s artistic practice and its relationship with the environment originated purely from observations and imitations in the early days, and transformed into concrete responses to environmental issues, which later extended to the space management strategies of BCS. This transition of her artistic expressions and guiding principles was evident in her environmental art installations such as "Following Through(引渡)" (1994), the "River: New Asian Art- A Dialogue on Taipei(河流：新亞洲藝術 · 台北對話)" exhibition at BCS (1998), the initiation of the "The Landscape of the Danshui River - Festival of Art & Environment at Chu-Wei(城市與河流的交會——竹圍環境藝術節)" (2002), and the collaborative project of the "Art as Environment - A Culture Action at the Plum Tree Creek(樹梅坑溪環境藝術行動)" (2009) with Mali Wu(吳瑪悧) guided by the concept of new genre public art. Additionally, she initiated transnational communities like GALA Asia(亞洲綠色藝術實驗室聯盟) (2015) and participated in the Taipei Biennial "Arts of Coming Down to Earth: Symposium and Workshop(儲回大地的藝術)" (2019).

Margaret devoted all her energies to international cultural exchange, reuse of deserted spaces, cultivation of creative talents, arts and cultural industries, art-business collaborations, Creative City initiatives, artistic interventions in spaces, and ecological sustainability. She managed to integrate foreign case studies with local experiences. Margaret simultaneously fulfilled multiple roles as an artist, curator, art collector, space manager, cultural worker, and policy advocate. She firmly believed that the value of art extends beyond art itself and embodies broader social significance. This belief in the potential for change through collective human action was the driving force behind her extensive artistic and social endeavours.