Dear AKOB Member, Dear Friend,
We would like to share with you a new project that our Mediterranean Opera and Ballet Club Association (AKOB) will carry out in our city, the Culture and Arts Seminar Series and subsequently the targeted Mersin culture and arts civil initiative project.
As you know, AKOB aims to contribute to our cultural and artistic life, especially in Mersin, with developing, inclusive and sustainable projects and works. We can talk about two main purposes of our association, which operates in the field of culture and arts: One of these is to provide children and young people with opportunities to realize their potential in the fields of opera, ballet and music, while the other is to ensure that the society we live in meets with cultural products and art. As you follow closely, as AKOB, we have been trying to integrate our activities around these two main axes for fifteen years.
We believe that culture, whether its roots are local or universal, is a living, public product. Therefore, while access to culture and art and the existence of a habitat to create quality works in these areas is an individual right, creating opportunities in this regard is also a social responsibility.
In the age of sustainability we are in, culture and arts have increasingly started to rely on civil society and local governments. The increasing cooperation and joint work of civil society and local governments are the best indicators of this. In this environment, we think that creating environments where non-governmental organizations and local governments operating in the field of culture and arts can mutually exchange ideas that will enable them to rethink their own visions with the principle of cultural pluralism will be of great benefit to consolidate our work.
For this purpose, as AKOB, we are starting a new project, Culture and Arts Seminar Series-1, on Friday, September 22, with the partnerships of Mersin City Council and Mersin Metropolitan Municipality, which provide valuable examples of effective local governance with their inclusive and participatory work with city components.
We bring together the components of our city in these seminars, which we will hold with respected names in the field of culture and arts. With local government representatives; with civil society representatives, organizations/individuals working in the field of culture and arts; We will be together with representatives of universities, professional chambers and the business world…
Our first seminar was given by Mr. Prof. Dr. It will be held under the title of "Cultural Policy" with Füsun Üstel. It is a pleasure for our city that Mr. Üstel, a respected name on the subject and known for his valuable work covering a wide range in the field of cultural policy, accepted our invitation. We will meet with Üstel, who is also a member of the Advisory Board of the İKSV Culture Line project, on Friday, September 22, 2023, at 17:00, at the AKİB Hall (Mediterranean Exporters' Associations).
We would like to see you, our valued member, among us and invite you to our seminar.
With our respect and love,
Demet Şaman Tarlakazan
Chairman of AKOB Board of Directors
*We would like to thank Mersin City Council, Mersin Metropolitan Municipality and our valuable member Gürkan Tekin for their support and contributions.
Note:
Dear Member, following a series of six targeted seminars, the participating associations, institutions and art lovers from Mersin will organize a civil organization - preferably - with a two-session workshop that will enable the emergence of common understandings, work areas and action plans, in order to contribute to the current cultural and artistic activities of Mersin. We are also aiming for an enterprise project.