Department of Cultural Affairs

Name: Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (MOCA Taipei)The date of establishment: May 26, 2001Construction type: Municipal historic siteTelephone: 02-2552-3721Address: No.39, Chang-an W. Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei City 103, TaiwanWebsite: http://www.mocataipei.org.tw/ (in Chinese and English versions)

Introduction:
The Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (MOCA Taipei) is the first art institution in Taiwan dedicated exclusively to contemporary art. Built in 1921, the museum building was originally the Jan Cheng Elementary School during the period of Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945. With 120 meters in width, this two-story building was built with brick walls and wood roof trusses that are often seen in subtropical countries. Pillars and sloped roofs with black tiles in the Western architecture were also incorporated into the building design. Both entrances to the MOCA Taipei look like gable-style arches.

In 1945, the building became the Taipei Government City Hall. After the city government moved to the Xinyi District in 1994, it was designated as a municipal historic site in 1996 by the city government. For the last five decades, the old city hall has played an important role in the policies and infrastructures of the capital city.

The policy of the reuse of historical buildings prompted the old city hall to be transformed in May 2001 into the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei and Jan Cheng Junior High School. The MOCA Taipei is the first museum in Taiwan to be successfully built in a historical building, and it is the only one of its kind to share the same architecture with a high school.

On May 26, 2001, the MOCA Taipei opened to the public and became one of Taipei’s most famous cultural landmarks. In recent years, the city government has actively invigorated its historical buildings and turned them into arts space. The MOCA Taipei is a shining example of the city government’s efforts to reuse historical buildings.