The International Herald Tribune does a little travel piece on the island across from the Kremlin that has become Moscow’s nightlife and arts district:

It is being called Moscow’s answer to New York’s Tribeca or London’s Docklands[….] The former Krasny Oktyabr, or Red October, chocolate factory complex has been transformed into art and photo galleries, designers’ studios, television and Web media headquarters, bars and cafes, and the oligarch-funded Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design. […]

Guta Development, a Moscow company, was planning to turn the Red October district into loft apartments before the global financial crisis hit. Guta started renting out the spaces instead.

Maria Baibakova, a 20-something New York- and London-educated socialite and contemporary art collector, put the factory, freed of its chocolate production lines, on the cultural map with a gallery that opened in 2008 (and has since moved). The next year, Red October was a venue for the 3rd Moscow Contemporary Art Biennale.

In the last few months, the neighborhood has come alive, turning into Moscow’s first full-fledged culture and dining district.

In Moscow, an Island Village for the Arts (IHT/New York Times)