Banu Özden of the TCF Culinary Arts Center-YESAM gave a lecture on “Exploring Turkey’s Culinary Heritage and how to prepare Turkish menus” to spouses of Ambassadors and other high level diplomates to Turkey at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara.

Ms. Özden also spoke about the history of Turkish culinary culture to members of the Fulya Turkuaz Rotary Club at the Four Seasons Hotel in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district.

The Spring lecture series of YESAM has been concluded, and lectures may be watched online at the TCF Video Gallery.

In May, YESAM took a group of food enthusiasts on a cultural tour highlighting the culinary culture of the city of İzmir and its famous open markets. The group visited one of Turkey’s biggest market in the town of Ödemiş, the museum city of Birgi, and the antique cities of Metropolis and Teos. The group also visited the open market of Sığacık located in Seferihisar, the first town in Turkey to be named a member of the Cittaslow movement by Slow Food International.  While in Sığacık, tour participants had the chance to sample a variety of local ingredients and dishes.

Turkish cooking traditions are highlighted every month with the YESAM Recipe of the Month. This month’s featured recipe is “Cheese Filled Zucchini”.

Dr. Recep Karadağ of the TCF Cultural Heritage Preservation and Natural Dyes Laboratory-DATU participated in the 6. International Turkic Art, History and Folklore Congress/Art Activities in Konya, Turkey from May 12-14, 2016. He gave a presentation entitled “Non-Destructive and Micro-Analytical Methods in the Restoration of Textile Cultural Heritage.”

Dr. Recep Karadağ and Emine Torgan of DATU also participated in the 38th International Symposium of Excavations, Surveys and Archaeometry at Trakya University in Edirne, Turkey on May 23- 27, 2016.  Emine Torgan gave a presentation on the “Characterization of Textile Finds in the Ancient City of Philadelphia” and Dr. Recep Karadağ gave a presentation on “Methods of Analysis for Archaeological and Historical Objects.“

The Golden Age of King Midas, a world premier exhibition at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, continues to be on display through November 27, 2016. Supported by a major grant by TCF, the exhibition features artifacts unearthed in the main tumulus in Gordion, as well as a number of important objects from the tumuli in Lydia and Lycia. These pieces appear alongside select examples from the Penn Museum's own collections.

Makam New York's program Turkish Story Time, supported by a TCF grant, continues to present weekly programs in New York City. Turkish Story Time brings children and their caregivers together to learn about Turkish culture through reading stories in Turkish, learning songs, rhymes, and riddles, introducing instruments and advancing literacy. The program is recorded every Thursday at 4:00 pm at Book Culture on Columbus in New York City and is open to the public. The recordings, stories and materials are available on Makam New York’s website.

Dr. Fatma Ürekli, Professor at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul, presented a lecture on efforts in the late Ottoman Empire to preserve cultural artifacts and structures. The lecture was entitled “Birinci Dünya Savaşı Döneminde Tarihi Eserleri Koruma Gayretleri” and took place at the TCF Istanbul Office on May 26, 2016.

For more information on upcoming TCF Lecture Series in Turkish Culture and Art click here. All TCF Istanbul lectures are recorded and may be watched online in the TCF Video Gallery.

Glass artist Barış Can Aksakal (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2014) holds a solo exhibition entitled "Figüratif Glass Sculpture" at GLASST, Tülin Yiğit Akgül Glass Studio & Gallery in Istanbul from April 30 to May 15, 2016.

Poet and writer Nurduran Duman (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2016) attended “UNESCO European Literature Night” in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 13, 2016 and European Poetry Night in London, UK on May 14, 2016.