The Baksı Museum Student Art Festival is slated to open for the sixth time this year. Held by the Baksı Culture and Art Foundation since 2013, the event focuses on discovering and supporting talented art students.
The festival is being held at Baksı Museum in Bayburt province today and tomorrow and has been extended to Erzurum and Trabzon provinces this year.
Speaking to reporters, Professor Dr. Hüsamettin Koçan, the founder of Baksı Museum, said they have prepared a much larger organization this year.
"The boundaries of our festival are expanding every year. We are striving to garner international support for this project which we will expand to the national scale in the next step. We will continue to provide educational support to young talents in Anatolia," Koçan said.
Within the two days of the festival, an exhibition opening, a scholarship distribution ceremony and workshops will be held.
The "The Training of Talent" workshop will serve as a guide for the training of young art talents. It aims to provide a healthier educational environment for students by discussing the roles of nongovernmental organizations, educational institutions and the media in the training of talented individuals.
Koçan explained that they organize the festival in order to determine and support students with creative potential in the region and to contribute to a creative society.
"We are expanding the boundaries of our project every year. This way, we will continue to provide educational support to our talented students. We will provide scholarships to 30 of the most successful students from Trabzon, Erzurum and Bayburt," he said.
"Students will be asked to submit their studies every year according to the criteria of the Baksı Museum for the continuation of their scholarships," he added.
Koçan further noted, "In order to expand our festival this year, we collaborated with the Aydın Doğan Foundation, Atatürk University Faculty of Fine Arts and Karadeniz Technical University Fine Arts Faculty. In this context, the student workshops held from Sept. 19 to Sept. 21 were very successful."
"Without much intervention, we encouraged children to reflect their original ideas in their work and to carry out experimental work. We obtained impressive results. We invite everyone to see this beautiful exhibition in Baksı," he said.
Talent Training workshop
Under the spokesmanship of Zeynel Abidin Öztürk, the following individuals will make presentations at the Training of Talent workshop:
Aydın Doğan Foundation Executive Council Chair Candan Fetvacı, Istanbul Modern Museum General Director Levent Çalıkoğlu, Ankara Rahmi M. Koç Museum Manager Mine Sofuoğlu, professor Dr. Gülsün Sağlamer, Okan University Dean Ali İlker Gümüşeli, Atatürk University's Fine Arts Faculty Dean Mustafa Bulat, Karadeniz Technical University's Fine Arts Dean Sonay Çevik and Marmara University Fine Arts faculty member Dr. Mürteza Fidan.
About Baksı Museum
Baksı Museum, rising from the village of Bayraktar, formerly known as Baksı, was founded by professor Koçan, an artist and academic born in Bayburt. This extraordinary museum brings together contemporary art and traditional handicrafts on a common cultural platform. With its exhibition halls, warehouse museum, workshops, a conference hall, library and guesthouse, it is located on an area of 40 acres, 45 kilometers outside of Bayburt.
The museum, which joined the Baksı Culture and Arts Foundation in 2005, has turned into a real social project over the years with the contribution of many volunteers, especially artists. The museum's main building was completed in 2010 after a challenging adventure without any financial assistance from the state.
The Baksı Museum was introduced at Istanbul Modern in June 2010 and opened in July. The warehouse museum, the new exhibition hall of the museum, opened to art lovers in 2012. In addition to many other awards, the Baksı Museum won the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Museum Prize in 2013.