TAIYUAN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Datong, a historic and cultural city in north China's Shanxi Province, will cooperate with the Center Pompidou of France to build a new international art community, local authorities said.
Construction work on the community, which will cover an area of 60,000 square meters with 100 Chinese-style courtyards, will start soon and is expected to be completed in a year and a half, according to the city's bureau of culture and tourism.
Fu Yudong, the project leader, said that the core projects of the community will be the Pompidou international art center and the art institute. French artists will be invited to reside in the community for artistic exchange and creation.
"We hope to send young Chinese artists and their works to France through this platform, which will make Datong a key portal for Sino-French cultural exchange," Fu said, noting that the new art community will attract students, art collectors and curators from home and abroad.
As the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) for nearly a century, Datong has numerous places of interest including the Yungang Grottoes, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.
Named after the late French president Georges Pompidou, the Center Pompidou is a Paris landmark and a center of contemporary arts.
