Republican period Shanghai has been conceived as a golden age of cultural dynamism，blending Chinese traditional and Western artistic components. In the past two decades，the twentieth century Chinese art history has shifted from interpreting aesthetic features in paintings towards exploring art institutions and the modern art world. However，the spatial distribution of artists as well as its connection to the boarder urban context have not yet attracted scholarly attention. This has neglected the possible impact of the social and economic conditions（e.g.，accessibility to cultural institutions，social networks of artists’ clusters）on art organizations’ operations and artists’ wellbeing.

This is the first research that applies the Historical Geographic Information System（HGIS）to mapping the Republican period Shanghai artists. The research team spent one year collecting historical data，including artists’ residential and business addresses as well as those of the possible contributing factors，such as cultural facilities，business infrastructure，public spaces，bars and entertainment facilities. In the meantime，the HGIS team selected and digitalized old Shanghai maps，put in data and established databases. This research adopts quantitative research methods for data analysis，which reveals the relationship between artists’ spatial distribution and the contributing factors. This eventually leads to the modeling of artists’ activities. This article reports the way to apply the HGIS technology in Republican period Shanghai art geography research，including technical methods and research methods，as well as the initial findings.