The coming year will no doubt witness more tension and difficulties, but some of the confusion should be lifted.
For my first column of the year, I would like to leave politics behind and focus instead on culture. In just over two weeks, İstanbul will be crowned European Capital of Culture for 2010. The run-up to this year-long event has been fraught with setbacks and controversies, but we can look forward to a culturally-rich year with 230 events currently being realized.
At a recent dinner organized for the foreign press, representatives of the İstanbul 2010 Agency outlined their strategy, based on three pillars: urban projects and conservation, culture and arts, and tourism and promotion. That the gathering to inform foreign correspondents took place in late December, just a few days before Christmas when so many reporters were away, suggests that the communications policy could still be improved. But the advertising campaign now seems in full flow and will hopefully attract many visitors.
Husamettin Kavi, who is the chairman of the advisory board, stressed that the events planned for the coming year would only be the beginning. More important, he underlined, was the partnership that has developed between local authorities, the central government, the private sector, civil society organizations and universities, which should leave a cultural legacy for İstanbul residents to enjoy well beyond 2010.
Just as fine tuning the political balances between civilian and military authorities is proving a complex process, bringing different sectors of society together to coordinate events for 2010 was a challenge. It required people and organizations with different priorities to redefine their roles and learn new forms of collaboration. Their interaction, as we know, was not always smooth. Despite resignations and other hurdles, İstanbul appears ready for the grand opening on Jan. 16, 2010.
New cultural venues will emerge next year. Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence will open in July. The Princes’ Islands will get their own museum. Some key monuments of İstanbul’s historic heritage are being restored. We will be able to see Aya Sophia without scaffolding for the first time in years and the archeological riches unearthed during the excavations for the metro and Marmaray, including the Port of Theodosius, will be made accessible to the public.
A cultural and artistic infrastructure will be left behind when the year ends, but the collaboration with art venues and cultural organizations abroad as well as the improved dialogue between cultural players in Turkey itself will matter just as much.
The notion that culture and the arts are an important part of daily life is still relatively new in Turkey. I recently interviewed several painters who all complained about the lack of funding and infrastructure to promote their art work in Turkey and abroad. While the center of İstanbul boasts numerous art galleries, they are rare in the periphery and in provincial towns.
The “Portable Art” project, launched in the context of İstanbul 2010 is taking art to the suburbs. The traveling art exhibit has already visited several locations and will stop in two dozen more before it completes its rounds.
Making culture available to all, including the less wealthy, and getting young people involved as volunteers as well as performers, are all steps that will create a sense of ownership in the city and will improve the urban environment in Turkey’s largest metropolis. But the coming together of different segments of society and the more inclusive approach it fosters are also part of the broader political and social transformation that is currently taking place in Turkey, and we can all look forward to an interesting year.
I wish all my readers a peaceful, prosperous and happy new year.
