On Tuesday, Professor Koçan, the dean of the department of fine arts at İstanbul’s Okan University, inaugurated the Baksı Museum and Research Center for Folk Art in Bayraktar, near Bayburt, with a ceremony attended by Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay, Bayburt Governor Kerem Al and other top level officials of the northeastern province.The Baksı Museum, set on a 30,000-square-meter area located on a hilltop overlooking the Çoruh Valley some 45 kilometers from Bayburt, boasts an exhibition space of 1,500 square meters. The museum is a complex made up of several sections that house an exhibit hall for its permanent collection, a conference hall, a library, a guesthouse with a capacity to accommodate 30 guests, an ethnographic museum and another space for traveling exhibitions and workshops. The museum is named after Bayraktar’s former name.
The idea for the Baksı Museum was conceived by Koçan in 2000. The first section of the museum opened in August 2004. Work on the main building, which also includes workshops for the villagers, began around 2005. The museum turned into a social project with the donations of numerous fellow artists, finally turning into reality after 10 years of painstaking effort. “I wanted to transmit my knowledge and my thoughts to the place in which I was born,” Koçan said in a speech during Tuesday’s inauguration ceremony.
Noting that migration to Turkey’s western provinces has had serious social effects on the village, Koçan added that with Baksı, he aimed to “reinstate the breath of life in Bayburt … and to enliven the region’s economy through art.” The museum also aims to breathe new life into the local handcrafts such as ceramics and textiles in order to help the inhabitants of the region access financial resources that will earn them a living without having to leave their homelands. Bayraktar is home to around 500 inhabitants in around 80 houses who make a living through agriculture and livestock, like most villages across Anatolia.
The museum’s highly diverse permanent collection ranges from works of art by established contemporary artists to artifacts reflecting the culture of the region.
