BN Arts Academy turned a hotel ballroom in Mersin into a meeting point for art, education and social change on Saturday as its second painting competition drew wider participation, deeper regional reach and growing ambition for the future.
Held at BN Arts Academy under the umbrella of BN Hotel Thermal & Wellness, the 2026 edition of the competition showcased how a local cultural initiative is rapidly evolving into one of the Çukurova region’s emerging artistic platforms.
What began as a modest event a year ago nearly doubled in size this year, attracting 133 submissions from artists across Mersin, Adana and Hatay.
A distinguished jury led by veteran painter Ahmet Yeşil evaluated the entries through a multi-stage selection process before choosing five Success Award winners and five artists for Mention Awards.
Forty-two paintings were ultimately selected for exhibition, transforming the hotel into a temporary gallery space that blended contemporary art with community engagement.
The Success Awards went to Serra Zeynep Gedikoğlu, Ramazan Öner, Ahmet Sarı, Nilgün Çekmen and Nilsen Çalışkan, while Mention Awards were presented to Ayla Erol, Muteber Tükel, Esra Çiftçi, Gülsüm Coşanoğlu and Zeynep Nursoy.
But the evening extended beyond trophies and framed canvases.
The ceremony gathered artists, academics, educators and cultural leaders in discussions about the role of art in shaping society, education and regional identity. Organizers repeatedly returned to one central idea: art should not exist in isolation from everyday life.
Yusuf Narlı, speaking during the ceremony, said the academy forms part of a wider effort to position Mersin as a year-round destination that combines tourism, wellness and culture.
He pointed to the competition’s rapid growth since its inaugural edition in 2025, when participation stood at roughly 60 artists.
This year’s expansion into neighboring provinces marked an important step toward turning the event into a permanent regional institution, with organizers also citing rising interest from artists around Türkiye through social media.
The exhibition itself reflected that ambition. The selected works remained on display after the ceremony, giving the public continued access to the paintings while reinforcing the hotel’s growing identity as a cultural venue rather than simply a tourism destination.
One of the night’s strongest themes emerged through the event’s collaboration with Köy Okulları Değişim Ağı Derneği (Village Schools Change Network Association), widely known as KODA, a nonprofit organization focused on improving educational opportunities in rural village schools across Türkiye.
Representatives from KODA detailed an educational philosophy built less on short-term charity and more on long-term systemic change.
Rather than limiting its work to donations or cosmetic school improvements, the organization focuses on supporting village teachers through mentorship, training programs and university partnerships.
By 2026, KODA had reached more than 9,000 teachers and teacher candidates across 17 regions while positively affecting over 100,000 children nationwide. The organization also announced its intention to deepen partnerships in the Mersin and Adana regions by integrating artistic and cultural programs into teacher development initiatives.
The partnership added a broader social dimension to the competition, linking artistic expression with educational transformation in underserved rural communities.
Yeşil, one of Mersin’s most respected artistic figures, delivered some of the evening’s most memorable remarks.
Drawing on a career spanning six decades and 25 competition awards, the painter described art contests not as financial opportunities but as platforms for visibility, development and cultural continuity. He praised both the professionalism of the jury process and the growing quality of submissions, noting how recurring events help build long-term cultural memory within a city.
“The world is not perfect, that’s why art exists,” Yeşil said. “Our country is beautiful, but life is not always beautiful, so art exists. Because art exists, life will become beautiful.”
Other speakers echoed similar themes, emphasizing the need for sustained cultural programming rather than one-off events.
Jury members and academics discussed how repeated exhibitions, competitions and collaborations gradually create a lasting artistic ecosystem capable of influencing both local culture and public life.
