Monday School Subscription Crowdfund

Year 2016 to present

Period 2 hrs per workshop

Partner Les Petite Choses Production

Position Initiator/Co-Curator

Team YANG Nai-Hsuan, LIN Su-Lien, CHEN Hsin-Ning, SHEN Le, CHANG Ya-Yuan, HUANG Yu-Min, CHU Pei-Rung, CHANG Ya-Wei, CHEN Yi-Chin, CHEN Yi-En, PAN Yu-Hsun, CHANG Chien-Hao

Photo Jonnu Lung, 秦大悲, Les Petite Choses Production

Monday School aims at creating a co-learning field where everyone can feel free to perform, and anyone is free to join without fees or sign-up needed. The original intention of creating this free event is because most performing arts students in Taiwan, and possibly most performers, are struggling to survive in the unfriendly environment. Statistically speaking, 70% of top dance department students couldn’t find a full-time job hence no regular labor and health insurance.


This long-term project is initiated by the performing arts co-op Les Petites Choses Production(LPCP) under a land bridge and realized by promoting the continuous and spontaneous actions of participants and on-site donors. Since 2016, we held more than 80 workshops regularly in different urban public spaces.


In the beginning, less than 20 people participated, and most of them were from art school. To respond to the authentic needs of the general public and empower the autonomy of individuals, especially nonprofessionals, a variety of gamified experiences that addressed the importance of self-discovery in co-learning have been introduced. Moreover,


This socially engaged bottom-up movement is an experiment dedicated to the art of commoning, and has attracted wider audiences' participation in performing art also attention from both domestic and international communities, shaping the creative city landscape and continuing to generate collective memory of art and society through co-creation.


Challenge

As the above background states, performing arts students and especially graduates are actually needed to be incentivized to participate in this community-led growth art initiative for they are struggling with their balance between livelihood and self-growth.


In addition, most nonprofit events rely on governmental subsidies. However, subsidy is a kind of rivalry and excludable limited resources especially not conducive to the civil art movement and its sustainable management. How might we design a sustainable program that embraces the general public's involvement in co-creation that also meet the expectation of the professionals? How might we co-create a sustainable ecosystem wherein everyone becomes sharers instead of stakeholders?


Strategy

In order to create a social support system for performers(in a broad sense) that could grow together with the people, I transformed Monday School into a subscription crowdfund project in 2018. This establishment of a long-term strategic partnership between participants and the fundraisers would develop a diversified flywheel operation model, and actively expand reciprocal communication with society.


Impact

With the regular injection of public funds, we could take a long view, focusing on developing a resilient community culture of co-learning instead of being stuck in the dilemma most art groups face, being upset by repetitive administrative workloads and the uncertainty of fund application. Less than half a year after the launch of crowdfunding, we get more than 1.7k US from the public, enabling us to grow from a group of volunteers to a young professional team that specializes in organizing cross-border nonprofit art initiatives on the street.


In addition, having able to get in touch with the general public and maintain the relationship with them is not only our privilege, it indeed strengthens our competitiveness in the industry. Through word of mouth and some creative campaigns, the participants grow into a broader spectrum while the average number of participants exceeded 120 people after 2019, in summer ranging from 150 to 200. And the funders that year reaches more than 160. Gradually, Monday School becomes the 1st subscription crowdfund performing arts project in Taiwan history, and receive the Annual CrowdFund Achievement Award in 2022.



This long-term project, which has not applied for government subsidies, has been successfully operated so far. From schools, car wash, juvenile reformatories, urban public spaces, and discarded spaces to the virtual space during Covid, Monday School has been invited to Bulgaria, Paris, and Hong Kong. Its footprints have covered more than 10 different types of public spaces at home and abroad. As of 2022, Monday school has held more than 80 large-scale workshops, and nearly 10,000 people have participated in person, including Serge Laurent the Director of the Performing Arts Department of the Pompidou Center(France), Aymar Crosnier the Deputy Director of Centre National de la Danse(France), Tiago Guedes the Artistic Director of the Teatro Municipal do Porto(Portugal), and Katleen van Langendonck the director of KAAItheater(Belgium) as well as advanced leaders from National Theater & Concert Hall, National Culture and Arts Foundation, Performing Arts Alliance and so on.

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How might we redesign the flywheel of a non-profit art movement?
How might we redesign the flywheel of a non-profit art movement?

Lucky (YunCheng Chen)
is a trans-disciplinary design strategist, artivist, and researcher. He has lived in USA and Germany, advancing his studies under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Michael Erlhoff who first introduced the concept of Service Design.

3F., No.6, Sec. 1, Minsheng E. Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City 104011, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

                    News
⌒ 2023. 20th Apr~16th July. In residency at New Taipei City Art Museum,

                    Clients
NIKE, NCAA, Cathay Financial Holdings, StoryStudio, National Performing Arts Center (Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung sites), Taipei Fine Arts Museum, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan Design Expo, Creative Expo Taiwan, Nuit Blanche Taipei, Les Petites Choses Production, Turtle Island Community Development Association, Lightbox, Ministry Of Culture, Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office, Taipei City Office of Commerce, Tainan City Cultural Affairs Bureau, Tainan City Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission, and other public sectors

                    Distinctions-Award
⌒ 2022. Award of Excellence Communication Arts Design Competition / Platinum Winner Muse Creative Award/ Gold Award Indigo Design Award. Editorship and Creative Direction for 'LPC paper' ⌒ 2022. Crowdfund Annual Achievement Award. Initiator of 'Monday School'. zeczec ⌒ 2022. Awarded with Annual Performing Arts Group of Excellence for 'Les Petites Choses Production.' Taipei City Government ⌒ 2022. Awarded with 城崎国際アートセンター賞/Kinosaki International Arts Center Award. Dramatur of 'Beings' ⌒ 2021. Architanz Artist Support Award and Encouragement Award. Dramaturgy for 'Beings'. 27th Yokohama Dance Collection ⌒ 2021. Awarded with Annual Performing Arts Group of Excellence for 'Les Petites Choses Production.' Taipei City Government ⌒ 2019. Representative for "Taiwan Season" at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Dramatur of 'Fighters' Ministry of Culture & Centre Culturel de Taïwan à Paris ⌒ 2014. Winner (Group category). Silicon Hill Residency Funding Program by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee ⌒ 2011. Global Winner. Corporate identity design for International WorkCamp Global LOGO campaign ⌒ 2011. Award Winner (Top 100) . iF Design Concept Award ⌒ 2011. Grant Receiver. Scholarship of Government Sponsorship for Overseas Study ⌒ 2008. Grant Receiver. Government Scholarship Program for Overseas Study in Arts and Design

                    Distinctions-Miscellaneous
⌒ 2022. Paper presentation. Action research 'A None-profit Dance Group Transforms into A Cooperative Playgroup Through Col-learning' in 5th Conference of the Asia Pacific Network for Cultural Education and Research (23 out of 58) ⌒ 2022. Paper presentation. ‘Contested Histories in Local Cultural Museum:Turtle Island Renaissance Civic Forum' in 10th International Biennial Conference of Museum Studies (45 out of 122) ⌒ 2022. Residency artist of New Taipei City Art Museum

陳運成 (Lucky) 是獨立接案的策略人、研究型藝術行動者。他推動小事製作數位轉型成為17人的開放共學合作社;培力龜山島社區藉由參與式民主處理迫遷爭議,重塑文化主體性。他目前在g0v發起#re-place創生社群,逐步在地方導入創新的「海村再生」品牌提案。

臺北市民生東路一段6號3樓,臺灣

現任 小事製作 和 海波浪文化 策略長、g0v 台灣零時政府 #re-place坑主。他曾於 2015 年共同創辦planett星球實驗創作空間、2018 年發起《週一學校》訂閱集資計畫,同年擔任臺北市都更處《臺北市社區工作智庫前置計畫》設計總監與維管顧問至今,並曾連續擔任三屆 TIFA 臺灣國際藝術節特別計畫《戰鬥果醬》製作統籌、2021 年全國文化會議數位策略長及第一屆北美館日《來串門子 一#美術館路》 策展人、擔任 2022 亞太文化教育及研究網絡雙年會 和 博物館研究國際雙年學術研討會 論文發表者;2023 年其共同策畫的數位再生旅遊提案 guPON 獲選為永續鄉郊-亞太區域合作計劃的臺灣代表,同年受邀前往 2023 歐盟數位協議峰會 擔任專家工作小組的引導師,並於 2024 年擔任國立臺灣歷史博物館《超時空島嶼餐桌》 NFT 設計總監、歐盟委員會 S+T+ARTS Prize 國際顧問。

他參與的戲劇構作曾受邀在多個場所呈現,包括法國夏佑國家劇院(2024)、馬德里放映機錄像藝術節 (2024)、葡萄牙吉馬列斯國際當代舞蹈節 (2024)、巴塞隆納花市劇院 (2024)、德國達姆施塔特州立劇院 (2023)、兩廳院臺灣週 (2023)、臺灣燈會 (2023)、新北市美術館 (2023)、希臘Spring Forward藝術節 (2022)、德國Tanz Kongress舞蹈年會 (2022)、總統文化獎開幕 (2022)、大溪大禧 普濟堂 (2022)、愛丁堡藝穗節臺灣季 (2021)、橫濱TPAM國際舞台藝術交流會 (2021)、CINARS加拿大表演藝術展會 (2021)、府中雙城 板橋慈惠宮 (2021)、寶藏巖光節開幕 (2021)、大溪大禧 李騰芳古宅 (2021)、臺灣文博會 (2019)、衛武營開幕季 (2019),並獲英國沙德勒之井劇院 玫瑰舞蹈獎決選、橫濱舞蹈節暨舞蹈大賽評審團大獎、studio Architanz藝術家支持獎。

他領導的設計專案與編輯刊物,曾獲台灣創意力100最佳風格創意團隊、國藝會TAIWAN TOP演藝團隊、連續三年臺北市文化局年度團隊、青年培力工作站、永續鄉郊-亞太區域合作計劃 臺灣代表、荷蘭靛藍設計獎視覺設計類金獎、美國傳達藝術設計類年度卓越獎、義大利A‘設計獎印刷與出版媒體銅獎、美國繆思創意出版類鉑金獎、嘖嘖群眾集資成就獎、自由之境(Shopping Design冬季號)封面人物、李開復矽谷創業支持計畫團體組首獎、iF概念設計獎Top 100、聯合國教科文組織下最大志工平台IWC國際共同Logo徵選冠軍、第一屆校園化裝全國邀請賽(台科大) 銀獎、蘋果日報與自由時報的頭版報導等。