After over four years of renovation, the Treasure Hill Artist Village located at the southwestern border of Taipei City will open to the public Oct. 2.
The once dilapidated neighborhood of illegal dwellings is now home to 26 art studios and several rehearsal and exhibition spaces, with an international youth hostel scheduled to open next year, according to the Taipei Culture Foundation, which oversees the project.
Five selected artists have already moved into the studios to work, according to the TCF, adding that since 22 families have moved back to Treasure Hill, the artists-in-residence are encouraged to live in symbiosis with them.
Cultural activities including film screenings, concerts and art parades will take place around Treasure Hill on weekends to celebrate its rebirth, the TCF added.
Treasure Hill was originally used as an ammunition depot under the Japanese colonial rule in the 1930s, and the residence area started to expand after the Kuomintang took over Taiwan in 1945. In the 1980s, as many as 200-plus families were living in this four-hectare area.
In 2004, the Taipei City government designated the once illegal settlement a historical site, with the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs in charge of its refurbishment beginning in 2006.
The hillside neighborhood was lauded by a 2006 New York Times report as one of Taipei’s must-see locations. (THN)