The Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM) continues to entertain art lovers with its digital content as it remains closed to visitors due to the coronavirus outbreak. The museum is located among historical houses in the Odunpazarı district of Turkey’s northwestern province of Eskişehir and was inaugurated by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

OMM – designed by the famous Japanese architecture office Kengo Kuma and Associates (KKA) and inspired by Ottoman dome architecture, traditional Japanese architecture and Odunpazarı civil architecture – has been attracting the attention of art lovers and visitors to the city since it opened Sept. 7, 2019.

The museum, which also hosted many workshops and seminars, welcomed over 140,000 guests from the day of its inauguration until March 16, when it was closed to visitors.

Founded by Polimeks Holding Chairman and collector Erol Tabanca with 4,500 square meters of contemporary art space, the museum has revived the historical Odunpazarı region with its wooden structure and impressive architecture.

Additionally, the museum received the 2019 Special Award within the scope of the awards given by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as an expression of gratitude and appreciation to those who contributed to Turkey’s cultural heritage and the art world with unique art, handiwork, practices or scientific research.

OMM continues to attract the attention of art lovers with its digital content. The museum also offers live chat with artists on its social media accounts, workshops through the Zoom videoconference application and the opportunity to visit exhibitions via its mobile application.

Live chat series

Since April, OMM has been meeting with its followers on Instagram, @ommxart, on Thursday and Sunday evenings.

Artists from different fields, such as Ansen, Dilara Fındıkoğlu, Ersin Han Ersin, Osman Özel and Karina Smigla-Bobinski, have been interacting with participants in a series of live chats.

OMM workshops

With its specially designed workshops, OMM offers an alternative to those who want to spend some quality time with art. Adult and children's workshops aiming to meet and create together with artists are held live through the digital platform Zoom.

Forty-minute workshops, including "Three-dimensional cards," "Marbling patterns with milk," "Collage," "Template printing" and "Origami sculptures," will be held every Saturday until June 6 at 4 p.m. Those who wish to participate in the free Zoom workshops should send an e-mail to egitim@omm.art.

OMM online

The OMM Mobile application, which can be downloaded from Google Play and the App Store, covers the works in the "Vuslat" ("The Union") exhibition and current news from the museum.

Meanwhile, the impressive short film "Quarantined," prepared by director and photographer Osman Özel, who spent 14 days under government-mandated isolation, is available on the OMM Journal website. This video constitutes the third part of Özel's "Notes from Quarantine" series.

You can access the interviews with artists on OMM Journal after workshop visits that take place within the scope of OMM Studio every Monday, while the production phase of the works can be viewed on OMM's Instagram account.

OMM Mixtapes on Spotify

Playlists compiled by the museum team are available every Wednesday on OMM Mixtapes on Spotify, while playlists compiled in collaboration with artists can be listened to on OMM's Spotify account every Friday.

Museums Week

Announcing its digital events on its Instagram account, OMM has planned a special event for Museums Week, marked on May 18-24. The museum invites its Instagram followers to share photos taken at the museum when the museum was open.

Until May 22, a special collection will be selected from photos shared with the tags, #tbOMM, #MuseumWeek and @ommxart. By posting these photos on the @ommxart account, OMM aims to take its followers down memory lane during their time at home.