Anadolu Kültür organizes and diffuses exhibitions, film showings, theater productions, concerts, and poetry readings as part of its program for the sharing and diffusing cultural activity. Seminars, workshops and support provided for various activities make it possible for artists from many different disciplines to interact and share their knowledge, facilitating and furthering artistic production in a wider geography. Many programs are multicultural and multidisciplinary. Most are made possible through cooperation with a wide range of institutions.

CINEMA

Cinema, among all forms of artistic expression, is perhaps the most efficient in terms of reaching the largest numbers of people. It conveys an individual’s unique story and “other” societies’ viewpoints and cultural attributes to the largest number of individuals.

Thus, in terms of sheer numbers, film screenings constitute the majority of activities. Films that can only be viewed during festivals in metropolitan cities like Istanbul and Ankara get to reach filmgoers in Anatolian cities that have no film festivals. Special screenings are organized for special interest groups, such as lawyers, women, or children. Weeks are dedicated to films from different geographic regions.

LITERATURE

Literature and poetry often emerge as creative outlets of self expression at times and localities where economic, social, and political pressures are most oppressive. Communication tools for the sharing of experiences and the passing down of history evolve into a locally produced and locally preserved cultural heritage, which not only survives but perhaps even flourishes at times when all other cultural activity has died down.

Such was the case in Diyarbakır, home to several prominent poets such as Süleyman Nazif, Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı, and Ahmed Arif. Diyarbakır’s literary tradition had stayed active through the city’s gloomiest days and was rejuvenated through the founding of DAC. Poets and writers from the east and the west came together and read from their own works, gave and attended literature seminars, and held long and heated discussions.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Another working area of Anadolu Kultur is photography. With the exhibitions and workshops, Diyarbakır’s street dwelling children photograph their own world; a young man lives among the Kocer nomads and documents their lives; a woman from Sweden teaches a seminar in Kars and exhibits her work in Diyarbakır; children from Afghanistan, fathers from Sweden, and women from Kerbela share an exhibition hall in eastern Anatolia with the streets of Bagdad and the houses of Georgia. The works of two young photographers from Hakkari travel to three cities.

Visitors at Anadolu Kultur’s photography exhibits see the world through the lenses of famous masters, street urchins, 111 women against violence and “The young eyes of the Caucasus”.

CONTEMPORARY ART

Anadolu Kultur both supports production of contemporary art exhibitions and organizes visiting exhibits of contemporary art that have been produced and exhibitied elsewhere in Turkey or in the world.

Anadolu Kultur collaborates with universities, public administrations, NGOs, and private sector at the local level.

PERFORMING ARTS

Anadolu Kültür’s work sets the stage for many first beginnings in performing arts. Famous actors perform theatrical classics on Anatolian stages. A theater workshop in Diyarbakir evolves into a major performance. Individuals from Izmit, Istanbul, Ankara, and Diyarbakir come together for an experimental play which they write, stage and perform, first at a dilapidated church in Diyarbakir’s slums, than on a stage in Hamburg. A young boy who ended up in Diyarbakir as a result of forced migration grows into the young actor admitted into the Grotovsky Workshop. A young woman’s beautiful voice echoes “I can” from Kars. Musicians from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia play and sing for peace with their colleagues in Turkey. The strummings of a guitar player from Argentina blend into the arias arising from an old church. Children in Batman put on a mime performance. A Swedish Tango Orchestra tours Anatolia. Zeynep Tanbay dances in Viransehir.

Anadolu Kultur’s support for the performing arts takes on many different forms. It facilitates performances by major theater companies across Anatolia. Local theater groups are provided with locations, small grants for costumes or props, and the technical or logistic support they need. Workshops are organized and evolve into staged performances. Strangers from different localities and different walks of life work together as a team of writers, artists and directors on unique, cutting edge projects.

Sometimes it’s bringing theater to new localities. Sometimes it’s helping newcomers onto the stage. Sometimes it’s providing support to help independent civil initiatives survive. Sometimes it’s enabling experimental projects. Consistently, it’s creating a unique means of interaction and understanding.

MUSIC

In a land such as Anatolia, where different cultures have coexisted throughout history, music plays an important role in facilitating intercultural interaction and communication.

Anadolu Kültür organizes and supports musical activity which brings together music from various cultures to express the cornucopia of multiculturalism

Musical activity at the DAC takes two forms. On the one hand, it builds on the interaction among the many institutions of Diyarbakır involved with music from the region and supports their artistic production through a series of seminars, lectures, and small scale performances. On the other hand, it collaborates with other NGOs and the greater city municipality to organize major musical events.

The musical variety that exists in the Caucasus region and the common interest in music shared by the different peoples of the area have shaped the musical activity planned for the region.

The opening concert of the KAC set the tone for all musical activity to follow:, musicians from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey shared the stage in an expression of cultural diversity, in a city unique in its shared significance for so many different cultures. KAC became the common stage where the flamenco guitar, the baglama, and the piano played the same key, where different languages and dialects sang in unison.

Anadolu Kültür continues to support musical endeavors that convey cultural diversity through universal values.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

Anadolu Kultur supports projects that aim to create greater awareness about, deepen the understanding of, and preserve the cultural heritage which has been handed down by past generations and to facilitate the transference to future generations and encourages the sharing of work undertaken and data obtained.

WOMAN, CHILDREN, JUSTICE, AND OTHER SOCIAL ISSUES

Anadolu Kultur specifically designs programs targeting populations who have already been victimized through the unequal distribution of economic resources in order to prevent their further victimization through lack of access to social, cultural and artistic resources. By addressing issues that disproportionately affect women, children, youth, minorities and low income groups, it strives to expand civic space where different social strata and groups can take part and produce.

The “Issues” program, incorporates a wide range of disciplines in addressing the most poignant issues of justice, language, diversity, poverty, as well as some of the groups most strongly affected by these issues.