Mayor Turan Opened Local Governments and Culture & Arts Workshop with Nabi Avcı, Minister of National Education, Culture and Tourism in the Previous T

Local Governments and Culture&Arts Workshop was organized at Neslişah Sultan Cultural Center with participation of Fatih Mayor M. Ergün Turan, Mr. Nabi Avcı, the Minister of National Education and Culture and Tourism in the previous term in addition to esteemed guests.

Organized by Fatih Municipality in cooperation with İLKE Foundation to discuss main issues in culture policies of local governments and develop new models for decision-making processes, the Local Governments and Culture&Arts Workshop was organized at Neslişah Sultan Cultural with participation of Fatih Mayor, M. Ergün Turan, Mr. Nabi Avcı, the Minister of National Education and Culture and Tourism in the previous term in addition to academics, artists, and representatives of local governments. The workshop presented a roadmap including applicable suggestions for solutions for local governments to form culture strategies. At the same time, new models were developed for decision-making processes of local governments by presenting problems in culture policies. In addition to opening remarks of Mayor Turan, Chairman of the Board of İLKE Foundation, Prof. Lütfi Sunar also gave a speech. During his opening speech, Mayor Turan thanked academics, esteemed figures of culture and arts scene, and researchers for their participation in the workshop where culture strategies of municipalities were broadly discussed. Prof. Nabi Avcı gave his remarks under Main Speech title. The first session was moderated by İstanbul Director of Culture and Tourism Dr. Coşkun Yılmaz and started a discussion on “Principles of Culture Strategy in Local Governments”. During the first session, Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Yalçın Yılmaz of İstanbul University shared his work titled “Why is Defining a Culture Strategy Important”, Assoc. Prof. Aynur Atmaca Can of Marmara University shared her work titled “Determining Culture Strategy in Local Governments”, Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Emin Balcı of İstanbul University shared his work titled “Impact of Popular Culture on Culture Policies”. The second session was moderated by Dr. İsrafil Kurulay of İstanbul Ticaret University. In this session, Curator Mehmet Lütfi Şen made his presentation titled “Culture Arts Operations in Local Governments and Difficulties”, Dr. Osman Ülker of Kilis 7 Aralık University made his presentation titled “Global Examples in Cultural Planning Processes”, Prof. Marcus Graf of Yeditepe University made his presentation titled “Arts Organization in Local Governments”. This is followed by two forums. İsmail Halis moderated speeches by Abdülhamit Güler, Berat Madra, Celaleddin Çelik, Hakan Arslanbenzer, and Sevda Dursun. In the second forum, directors of culture of Fatih, Eyüp, Beyoğlu, Esenler, Üsküdar, and Beykoz municipalities gave remarks.