Taipa Village Destination Limited has introduced a brand experience “Taipa Village – Authentic Macau” to preserve, protect and develop the historic enclave. Now it is also boosting the local cultural scene with the opening of a new gallery, Taipa Village Art Space
Located in the oldest and best preserved area of Taipa, Taipa Village was formerly home to local fishermen and residents who made their living through fishing, fireworks production and handicrafts. Today with its traditional shop houses and cobbled streets, it offers a peaceful respite to the glitz of the neighbouring Cotai Strip, maintaining a sense of community that values culture and heritage, with a distinguished sense of history.
In April this year, Taipa Village Destination Limited announced the newly formed brand experience “Taipa Village – Authentic Macau” with the goal of attracting both local and international visitors to this increasingly popular heritage district. Its primary goal is to foster “sustainable heritage” in Taipa Village – the blending of architecturally distinct local shop houses with vibrant retail and food and beverage concepts, aimed at benefitting the wider Macau community and becoming a new tourist attraction in its own right.
Taipa Village Destination Limited is an affiliate of Sniper Capital Limited, a real estate fund manager which has been leading the regenerating of Taipa Village for over a decade, in tandem with the Macau government and local businesses and property owners.
“Our goal is to promote Taipa Village as an exciting and culturally rich non-gaming destination by offering a perfect alternative to the city’s casino resorts,” Pamela Chan, Senior Marketing Manager at Taipa Village Destination Limit explains.
A local-born Macanese, Chan began her career in hospitality 14 years ago after graduating from Macau’s Institute for Tourism Studies with a degree in tourism business management. With experience in luxury hotels and casino-based integrated resorts, as well as the hospitality and entertainment industries in Macau and regionally, Pamela believes Taipa Village offers a platform for her knowledge and an opportunity for her to share that with visitors and locals.
“We are promoting a historic heritage area, boosting innovative dining, shopping, cultural and lifestyle destinations, and our main target audience is both tourists and locals alike,” says the Marketing Manager.
Arts will also be a central part of the evolution of the Taipa Village brand. With its up and coming art galleries and signature cultural events, the area will be key to creating a major hub for arts and entertainment.
The recently opened Taipa Village Art Space, located in a traditional shop house in the epicentre of Taipa Village seeks to promote cultural and creative industries in Macau, allowing local and international artists to showcase their work, with the village’s colourful history and unique heritage serving as a backdrop.
“We have a lot of different houses around here, some of them are for restaurants, some of them are for shops, and this is the first one we are running as an art space. The gallery is one of our non-profit making projects. We want to invite local artists to showcase their artwork in our space,” explains Pamela.
Launched in mid-August, the first exhibition, which ran from 10 to 31 August, was a soft opening featuring the work “Macau °C” by illustrator and comic artist Blue Chan. Showcasing both watercolour and Japanese Paper collections, the exhibition illustrated a number of scenes associated with the artist’s travels, her perspective on Macau’s heritage, architecture, festivals, and cultural and leisure scenes.
Pamela is confident that the future ambitions for the gallery space are far reaching and will make an impact on the local art scene.
“The long term goal is to work with different types of artists and arts, from painting to sculpture, photography and a variety of different mediums. In the first stage we will be focusing on local artists because in Macau there are lots of talented artists, and next year we will be looking for foreign artists to join. We will also be exploring ways to host mini workshops and seminars here too.”
