The Nanying Award is a visionary, iconic, historical national art competition organized by Tainan. Starting in 1987, the Award underwent several transformations: from an invitational exhibition of local artists to an art competition on a national level. Such changes made it the very first national art exhibition organized by a local government, and the Nanying Award is thus regarded as one of the three most prominent national art exhibitions.
The Award has a rigorous, fair selection process and a handsome sum of prize money. In recent years, it also lifted the restriction of size specifications, and started to curate special exhibitions for award-winning works. All these have attracted an increasing number of artists to participate in the Award and made the Award a big annual event in art circles. By organizing different art competitions, Tainan seeks to spot new talents and encourage unique contemporary art creations with zeitgeist, with a view to driving the development of local, international, and contemporary arts in Taiwan.