Our Group, for the purpose of ensuring that culture and arts activities become more widespread in our country, encouraging the production of contemporary art works and protecting the traditional values, supports Turkey’s numerous valuable art activities and festivals.
The Sakıp Sabancı Museum
The Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum provides a multi-faceted museum environment with its rich collection, the extensive international temporary exhibitions it hosts, conservation units, exemplary training programs and the various concerts, conferences and seminars it holds.
The Sakıp Sabancı Museum has hosted the masterful names of painting and sculpture with exhibitions such as the following since being opened in 2002:
- Genghis Khan and His Heirs; The Great Mongol Empire
- Legendary Istanbul - From Byzantium to Istanbul: 8,000 Years of a Capital
- Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum
- Across - The Cyclades and Western Anatolia during the Third Millennium BC
- Picasso in Istanbul
- Great Master of Sculpture Rodin in Istanbul
- Abidin Dino – A World
- Salvador Dalí, A Surrealist in Istanbul
- Rembrandt and His Contemporaries
- Monet’s Garden
- Anish Kapoor in Istanbul
Also, the Sakıp Sabancı City Museum and the Dilek Sabancı Art Gallery restored by the Sabancı Foundation, make great contributions to the promotion of historical and cultural riches of Mardin, the common heritage of humanity.
Sabancı International Adana Theater Festival
The Sabancı Foundation, since 1998, has been supporting the “State Theaters – Sabancı International Adana Theater Festival” in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and State Theaters. Within the scope of the festival, which lasts for one month, numerous foreign and domestic theater groups exhibit their plays. For the purpose of the festival reaching a greater number of people, as of 2005, some of the plays begun to be staged at the Sabancı University Performance Center. Also, as of 2008, the opening performances are staged over the Seyhan River with the participation of numerous Adana citizens. This way, the number of viewers of the Theater festival exceeds 80 thousand each year.
Mehtap Ar Children’s Theater
The Sabancı Foundation has been helping the theater to reach children and a wider audience by supporting the “Mehtap Ar Children’s Theater” since 2006. Mehtap Ar Children’s Theater reaches the upstates of Istanbul as well as Anatolia and aims to give teachings to the children there concerning life, art and human relations and to introduce them to theater. The plays, which are related to real life, are prepared on the subject matter of human relations, and have been enriched with effects, luminous effects and dances, the lyrics of which have been written by Aysel Gürel according to the text of the play.
Mehtap Ar Children’s Theater, as of the year 2006, in which it begun to receive the support of the Sabancı Foundation, visited 72 provinces and 213 districts in Anatolia as well as Istanbul, staged more than 3.000 plays, reached approximately 1 million children and covered a distance of 60 thousand kilometers for this purpose.
Turkish Youth Philharmonic Orchestra
Sabancı Foundation has been supporting the Turkish Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (TUGFO), which is the most dynamic orchestra of Turkey under the leadership of the acclaimed conductor Cem Mansur, since 2009. TUGFO, which consists of the artist candidates between the ages of 16-22, selected from the conservatories of Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Edirne, Eskişehir, İzmir, İstanbul and Mersin, provides the opportunity for young musicians to get orchestra experience before becoming professionals in the field.
Metropolis Ancient City Excavations
The Sabancı Foundation, increasingly continues the support it began to provide in 2003 for the Metropolis Excavations carried out under the administration of the Lovers of Metropolis Association (MESEDER). The excavation works in the city, which is between the Yeniköy and Özbey villages in İzmir’s Torbalı district and the heritage of which extends from the traces of the first settlements in the Neolithic Age to the classical ages and from the Hellenistic age to the Roman and Byzantine periods and to the history of the Beylics and the Ottoman Empire, are carried out meticulously.
The structures, manuscripts, sculptures, coins, glass and ceramic objects which have been obtained within the scope of the Metropolis Ancient City excavations, which have been carried out since 1990, are currently being displayed at the Efes and İzmir museums.
International Ankara Music Festival
The Sabancı Foundation is supporting the International Ankara Music Festival organized in Ankara since 2008 as an Honorary Member. In the festival which is organized by the Sevda-Cenap And Music Foundation each April and which hosts world famous artists, the music fans get the chance to listen to famous artists as well as young artists that have been representing Turkey successfully in the international arena.
Turkey Folk Dancing Competition
Turkey Folk Dancing Competition was organized between 1994-2012 by the Sabancı Foundation in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. With the competition, it is aimed to ensure that the folkloric dance groups that are in an effort to ensure that the cultural and folkloric values that our country possesses live on and become more widespread are supported and the works of such are guided as well as ensuring that the groups that will represent our country and have great contributions to our general promotion are determined. Within the scope of the competition, in which the best examples of the folkloric dances that represent the Anatolian culture were displayed, 400 groups and more than 20 thousand dancers were hosted in 20 years with the auditions and rehearsals organized throughout Turkey and approximately 200 awards were granted.
Akbank Art
Akbank Art, which was founded in 1993 and undertook an important mission by gravitating towards contemporary art in 2003 and pioneered the promotion of contemporary art in Turkey, realizes more than 700 activities per year from exhibitions to modern dance performances, from classical music recitals to jazz concerts, from panels to children’s workshops and from movie screenings to theater. The institution, which acts according to the mission of “being a place in which change never stops,” draws attention to itself with its structure that appeals to audiences from all layers of the society. Within the body of its Contemporary Art Gallery, which hosts national and international exhibitions, the works of world renowned domestic and foreign artists can be found. The institution, which hosts at least four exhibitions each year, has been one of the prominent centers of contemporary art in Turkey.
Akbank Children’s Theater
Akbank Children’s Theater, the longest lasting children’s theater in Turkey, has left behind 42 years since the first day it opened its curtains. Akbank Children’s Theater, which had a great effect in raising a generation the loves the theater, has reached more than 2 million children throughout the years and opened new windows in the minds of thousands of children throughout Anatolia.
Akbank Jazz Festival
Akbank Jazz Festival, which is one of the longest lasting festivals in Turkey and is one of the most prominent symbols of Akbank’s determination to create lasting values and to render these values sustainable, hosted the most prominent jazz artists of the world such as Max Roach, Art Ensemble of Africa, Cecil Taylor, Abbey Lincoln, Dave Holland, Archie Shepp, McCoy Tyner, Henry Threadgill, Abdullah İbrahim Trio, Steve Coleman & Five Elements, Stephan Micus, Roberto Fonseca, İbrahim Maalouf, Eleni Karaindrou, Rembrandt Frerichs Trio, Enrico Rava, Mare Nostrum, Jim Rotondi and Terje Rypdall in the 23 years it left behind and had its audience witness unforgettable performances.
Akbank Short Film Festival
The Akbank Short Film Festival, which created an efficient platform in the field of short film and was initiated in 2004 for the purpose of contributing to the culture of short film, hosted many famous directors during the years it left behind and had them meet their audiences. The festival, which gained a unique place in the Turkish film industry and became essential particularly for young filmmakers, manages to appeal to all film lovers not only with its film screenings but also the workshops and panels that it organizes.