Anadolu Kültür 2026 - 2028 Strategic Framework
2025 has been a year of reflection and reassessment for the Anadolu Kültür team, regarding the meaning, impact and responsibilities of our work at the intersection of civil society and culture and arts.
In overlapping yet distinct contexts, increasing political pressures, prolonged economic crises, and rising conflicts and wars have further constrained civil society and the cultural field, both globally and in Turkey. At the same time, the field is transforming through emerging movements and new forms of solidarity.
In this context, we have developed our 2026–2028 Strategic Plan through the active participation of the Anadolu Kültür team and the insights of our partners across our various activities. In this framework, we will focus our efforts on five priority areas:
1. A resilient institutional structure
In a shrinking civic space, we recognise the importance not only of institutional continuity but also of maintaining a dynamic structure capable of responding quickly and meaningfully to changing conditions. We aim to strengthen institutional practices that safeguard and develop organisational knowledge within a transparent, accountable, and collaborative learning environment, while also prioritising the well-being of our team. We are building a structure that enables closer collaboration between Depo, DSM, and project teams.
2. A diversified and plural resource structure
We approach financial sustainability not merely as a matter of securing funding, but as a relational framework that safeguards institutional independence and room for action. While strengthening our transparent financial planning approach, we aim to rethink our relationship with resources—from redefining what constitutes resources to ensuring equitable access to them—by developing new collaboration models and alternative income-generating methods that support a plural resource structure and institutional autonomy.
3. Strengthened stakeholders and networks
We aim to move beyond project-based partnerships by consolidating our local and transnational collaborations into long-term networks based on trust and mutual learning. We seek to reconstruct these networks as spaces for knowledge sharing, collective thinking, and joint action; to foster new forms of solidarity; to build bridges for multi-actor, interdisciplinary collaborations; and to create communities of learning and practice that centre care and relationality.
4. Independent cultural and artistic production and spaces
We consider it essential to develop flexible, needs-based, and solidarity-driven support models that enable critical, authentic, and inclusive artistic production to continue under increasing pressure and precarity, and that allow independent artists and initiatives to realise their transformative potential. We aim to support the infrastructure of small-scale, research-based, and process-oriented artistic production; to create spaces for visibility, exhibition, and discussion; and to expand opportunities for collective production and freedom of expression by strengthening transnational connections with neighbouring geographies.
5. Bridging culture, arts, and rights-based work
With our belief in the transformative and mutually reinforcing relationship between culture, arts, and rights-based work, we aim to reduce the distance between these fields while expanding their points of intersection. We seek to develop programmes and practices that amplify rights advocacy through artistic interventions. In a time when access to rights is increasingly eroded and rights struggles are being criminalised, we aim to address shared local, regional, and transnational challenges through community-based, creative, and transformative artistic practices; to foster collective production, equal expression, and participation; and to expand the resilience, collective action, and impact of local communities through arts and culture.
Since our foundation, we believe that cultural and artistic production in areas such as human rights, gender equality, migration, social and ecological justice, and memory can create a strong counter-space in response to rising discrimination, political pressure, and tendencies toward isolation and withdrawal.
In the coming period, we will continue to nurture the potential of culture and arts to contribute to social peace, justice and a democratic future. We will continue to expand the transformative space created by culture and arts, working hand in hand with our existing partners as well as new stakeholders.
2025 has been a year of reflection and reassessment for the Anadolu Kültür team, regarding the meaning, impact and responsibilities of our work at the intersection of civil society and culture and arts.
In overlapping yet distinct contexts, increasing political pressures, prolonged economic crises, and rising conflicts and wars have further constrained civil society and the cultural field, both globally and in Turkey. At the same time, the field is transforming through emerging movements and new forms of solidarity.
In this context, we have developed our 2026–2028 Strategic Plan through the active participation of the Anadolu Kültür team and the insights of our partners across our various activities. In this framework, we will focus our efforts on five priority areas:
1. A resilient institutional structure
In a shrinking civic space, we recognise the importance not only of institutional continuity but also of maintaining a dynamic structure capable of responding quickly and meaningfully to changing conditions. We aim to strengthen institutional practices that safeguard and develop organisational knowledge within a transparent, accountable, and collaborative learning environment, while also prioritising the well-being of our team. We are building a structure that enables closer collaboration between Depo, DSM, and project teams.
2. A diversified and plural resource structure
We approach financial sustainability not merely as a matter of securing funding, but as a relational framework that safeguards institutional independence and room for action. While strengthening our transparent financial planning approach, we aim to rethink our relationship with resources—from redefining what constitutes resources to ensuring equitable access to them—by developing new collaboration models and alternative income-generating methods that support a plural resource structure and institutional autonomy.
3. Strengthened stakeholders and networks
We aim to move beyond project-based partnerships by consolidating our local and transnational collaborations into long-term networks based on trust and mutual learning. We seek to reconstruct these networks as spaces for knowledge sharing, collective thinking, and joint action; to foster new forms of solidarity; to build bridges for multi-actor, interdisciplinary collaborations; and to create communities of learning and practice that centre care and relationality.
4. Independent cultural and artistic production and spaces
We consider it essential to develop flexible, needs-based, and solidarity-driven support models that enable critical, authentic, and inclusive artistic production to continue under increasing pressure and precarity, and that allow independent artists and initiatives to realise their transformative potential. We aim to support the infrastructure of small-scale, research-based, and process-oriented artistic production; to create spaces for visibility, exhibition, and discussion; and to expand opportunities for collective production and freedom of expression by strengthening transnational connections with neighbouring geographies.
5. Bridging culture, arts, and rights-based work
With our belief in the transformative and mutually reinforcing relationship between culture, arts, and rights-based work, we aim to reduce the distance between these fields while expanding their points of intersection. We seek to develop programmes and practices that amplify rights advocacy through artistic interventions. In a time when access to rights is increasingly eroded and rights struggles are being criminalised, we aim to address shared local, regional, and transnational challenges through community-based, creative, and transformative artistic practices; to foster collective production, equal expression, and participation; and to expand the resilience, collective action, and impact of local communities through arts and culture.
Since our foundation, we believe that cultural and artistic production in areas such as human rights, gender equality, migration, social and ecological justice, and memory can create a strong counter-space in response to rising discrimination, political pressure, and tendencies toward isolation and withdrawal.
In the coming period, we will continue to nurture the potential of culture and arts to contribute to social peace, justice and a democratic future. We will continue to expand the transformative space created by culture and arts, working hand in hand with our existing partners as well as new stakeholders.