Started in 1969 as the Taipei City Art Exhibition, the Taipei Arts Awards is now one of the longest running art contest-exhibitions organized and funded by the Taipei municipal government. In 2001 TFAM expanded eligibility to include all art mediums and changed the name of the contestexhibition to the Taipei Arts Awards, effectively moving the focus to crossover works by the new
generation of artists. Since the transformation, slight revisions have been made to the contest rules on a yearly basis. This has not, however, stopped the gradual ossification of the existing model. Furthermore, due to the preponderance of art school students receiving the Taipei Arts Awards over the past few years, some have given the event the derogatory title of "Art School Award.” In response, TFAM researchers arranged five Taipei Arts Awards symposiums between May and August, inviting 21 people including previous recipients, judges, professional curators, scholars, art administrators and media/magazine editors to offer their suggestions on the selection process for the award. After compiling and reviewing the suggestions, TFAM proposed a selection process and a new set of contest guidelines completely different from the model used in the past:

1. The judging process shall be carried out in three rounds – preliminary, second, and final – and the artists nominated in the final round will compete for the top honor by showing their work in a small-scale solo exhibition.
2. The top prize shall be given to just one person. The person who receives the Taipei Arts Awards will be eligible for a solo exhibition at TFAM and will receive NT$ 550,000 in prize money. Those honored with the Award for Excellence will each receive NT$ 120,000 in prize money.

The newly formulated guidelines for the Taipei Arts Awards have been approved by the Departmentof Cultural Affairs and went into effect in 2010.