Despite the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, Art Plus Shanghai, a local art fair launched last year, is determined to play a leading role among peers. Last October, Art Plus Shanghai attracted 101 galleries from both home and broad, as well as 25,000 visitors, during the four-day event. Art Plus Shanghai recently announced that it would open an online art fair (www.artshanghaifair.com) at the end of this month, free of charge for participating galleries and art institutions for two years. Prior to its launch last year, Art Plus Shanghai already started a strategic plan for online and offline trading as its future development. It recently initiated an online payment system, which will enable Art Plus Shanghai to become an online event open all year round. According to Gu Zhihua, founder of the fair, Art Plus Shanghai aims to build up an art platform featuring art trade, social media, art news and art appreciation. Besides the online platform, Art Plus Shanghai will also collaborate with M50, one of the most famous art hubs in town. Art Plus Shanghai will help to hold exhibitions on the platform originally planned at M50, which are currently unable to open to the public due to the coronavirus epidemic. “We will have more concrete collaborations with M50. For example, the galleries and art institutions at M50 could collectively appear at our offline art fair in the future,” Gu said.