Amid a deafening sound of gongs and drums and students’ joyfully dancing, a month-long Tamsui Arts Festival has formally kicked off.

Tamsui Township Chief Kuo Che-dao, Lee Chi-mao, Director of Carrie Chang Fine Arts Center, TKU; and Chen Shih-yi, Chairman of Tamsui Town Council cut the ribbon to formally open the month-long “Arts Navigates Fuwei (Tamsui)” activities.

Crowd of well-wishers witnessed the opening ceremony which was held at the Triangle Park in front of Tamsui Mass Rapid Transport System Station on Oct. 5.

In his address, Kuo highly appreciated the assistance rendered by Carrie Chang Fine Arts Center, TKU and said, “with your help, Tamsui Arts Festival will be surely enriched by a series of colorful programs”. A model of sampan boat symbolizing “Arts Navigates Tamsui” was erected in the park and became a new geographical landmark for Tamsui, Kuo said.

Lee Chi-mao said that the sampan was one of the personal arts collections of Tamsui Township Chief Kuo Che-dao. Kuo donated the sampan and the center has built it into a 5.5 meters height statue as arts spiritual landmark. The head of the landmark is toward the east with the hope that Tamsui arts activities will be further prosperous in the future.

Following the ceremony, a lion dancing by Chingdao Chinese Martial Arts Troupe, a drum dancing and beating troupe by Hsinhsing Elementary School, a drum troupe by Tengkung Elementary School, a modern dancing troupe by National Tamsui Commercial Industry Senior High School and some musical clubs of TKU performed before the crowd.

In addition to fine arts exhibition and music demonstration, a series of visits to the workshops of local painters will be held every Saturday and Sunday during the month of October.