The city government has decided to preserve most of the art studios, galleries and clubs on Taikang Road in order to build up a real "cultural street," a senior urban planning official said yesterday.
"We expect to preserve most art-related buildings and to create a better cultural atmosphere for the street," Wu Jiang, deputy director of the Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau, told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
He also explained the government will save all of the successful artists' buildings on Taikang Road - such as painting studios - but it is also necessary for the government to renovate some old houses that are not in harmony with their artistic surroundings.
Wu meisen, curator of the Shanghai Taikang Road Art Street Management Committee, said the legal protection to retain the old buildings and warehouses on Taikang Road gives residents confidence to develop the road, the city's first "artistic street," in the future.
"We are finally relieved by the result," Wu said. "All our foreign tenants are excited because they don't need to worry about finding another location for their studios or boutiques."
He said Taikang Road will focus on the dealing of art and antiques in the future and he also promised the committee will attract more foreign private galleries.
Quietly tucked between Ruijin Road and Sinan Road in Luwan District, Taikang Road has recently become a hangout for art lovers.
So when studio and club owners on the road learned that the district government was considering plans to dismantle old buildings along the road early this year, they became very upset.
Later, 17 expatriate studio owners on the street wrote a letter to the government, calling on officials to "save the art street" rather than bulldoze it.
Tang sheng, the owner of the Spaceart Gallery on the road said "I now can fully engage in arranging a series of exhibitions, and I am happy that the government made the right decision."