2008-2011

Strategies for Local Cultural Policies

Cultural policy work that began in 2004 and brought together the experiences of many institutions and cities, aimed to support local municipalities in providing better support to existing culture and arts programs, and to enable independent civil initiatives to play a more active role in creating policy. In the scope of this field of work, events were carried out to facilitate the shaping of cultural policies of cities in a local and participatory manner, to foster cultural rights and cultural diversity in local cultural policies, to support local artists and culture/arts institutions, to develop and implement international cultural exchange that will support local artists, to develop experience-sharing and collaboration projects between different cities and to open a field where children and young people can express themselves in various branches of art on a local level.

The first work as part of this approach was initiated in the cities of Kars and Kayseri, selected in accordance with a field study carried out in 2004. Focus group studies were carried out in order to obtain data about the needs and potential of the cultural field in these cities, meetings were organized to discuss the priorities of the cities with participants from civil society organizations and local administrations. The preliminary work carried out in Kars and Kayseri in order to form a platform for steps to take in getting to know the cities better and develop local cultural policies continued in 2007 by including the cities Çanakkale, Antakya, Edirne and Mersin, and focus group studies were carried out in these cities, too. In accordance with the outcome of the focus group studies and debates, and taking into consideration the interest shown by citizens and local administrations, and in order to support the research and meetings held in Kars, Antakya and Çanakkale, the Strategies for Local Cultural Policies project was developed in order to be implemented in 2008-2010.

The Strategies for Local Cultural Policies was carried out from February 2008 to March 2011 by the partnership formed by Anadolu Kültür, Istanbul Bilgi University, the European Cultural Foundation and the Boekman Foundation with the support provided by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs MATRA Programme. Anadolu Kültür and Istanbul Bilgi University were the main executive partners of this project during which trainings, meetings and projects were carried out in the cities of Antakya, Çanakkale and Kars in order to develop participatory local cultural policies.

Publications of the project’s parallel studies:

• Local Cultural Policies Handbook, March 2011, Istanbul Bilgi University Publishing
• Turkish Cultural Policy Report: A Civil Perspective, July 2011, Istanbul Bilgi University Publishing
• Cultural Policy & Management (KPY) Yearbook 2010, Istanbul Bilgi University Publishing
• Cultural Policy & Management (KPY) Yearbook 2009, Istanbul Bilgi University Publishing
• Introduction to Cultural Policies in Turkey, July 2009, Istanbul Bilgi University Publishing