TCF announced the 13 recipients of the TCF 2013 Cultural Exchange Fellowship this month. The TCF Cultural Exchange Fellowship Program was launched in 2012 to encourage cultural and artistic exchanges between Turkey and the world by supporting artists and art/culture professionals. The Fellowship has been awarded to 33 individuals to date. For more information on the 2013 Fellows, please visit here.

The TCF Lecture Series in Turkish Culture and Art at the TCF Istanbul office featured Prof. Dr. Serpil Bagci, Hacettepe University, who spoke on “Alexander as Mehmed II: A Visual Documentation” on March 4. On March 5, Belkis Balpinar, Scholar and Artist, gave a lecture on Seljuk carpets. For more information on upcoming TCF lectures, please visit here. The TCF lectures can be viewed online at the TCF Video Gallery.

In March, the TCF Culinary Arts Center (Yemek Sanatlari Merkezi - YESAM) in Istanbul hosts three lectures highlighting various aspects of Turkish cuisine. A lecture on “Pastirma” by Prof.Dr.Artun Unsal took place on March 6. On March 20, Nedim Atilla spoke on Albanian Cuisine as Part III of the YESAM lecture series “From Rumeli: 100th Anniversary of the Balkan Wars” and on March 26, Dr.Ozge Samanci’s will present a lecture titled “History of Food: Ancient Age Roman and Greek Cuisine.” Unless otherwise noted, YESAM lectures are presented in Turkish. An English summary of each lecture is provided on the YESAM website and the lectures can also be viewed online at the TCF Video Gallery.

Istanbulive5, an annual celebration of Turkish contemporary music in the US, took place from March 7-22. Sponsored by a major TCF grant, Istanbulive5 highlighted Turkish Rock featured leading Turkish rock bands Gripin, Manga, Mor ve Otesi and New York Gypsy All Stars with a special showcase as the SXSW festival in Austin, as well as concerts in New York, Washington, DC and Boston.

TCF awarded a second major grant to the Ottoman Studies program at the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens, Greece. The TCF grant provides full funding to teach a course on Ottoman Language and Paleography at the Foundation. In its first year, the program enrolled 58 students. Offered this year at two levels, the course will be taught by Dimitris Loupis (TCF Fellow in Turkish Culture and Art -2010).

TCF awarded a major grant to support the 12th Annual Boston Turkish Film and Music Festival, organized by the Turkish American Cultural Society of New England.   The festival will take place from March 21 to April 27 and feature 19 films. Co-presented by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Turkish Film Festival will award its Excellence in Turkish Cinema Award to director Erden Kiral. As part of its music program, the Festival  will feature prominent Turkish acclaimed pianist Gulsin Onay and the Boston-based band Taxim Square.

TCF has provided a major grant to support an exhibition by Turkish ceramic artists at the 47th Annual Conference of the National Council of Education for the Ceramic Arts-NCECA in Houston on March 20-23. The exhibition is curated by Isik Gencoglu, Istanbul Concept, and organized under the theme “Balance.”

TCF has provided a major grant to ILKYAR Foundation, a Turkish NGO, which provides programs and aid to schools in rural areas of Turkey. The TCF grant will support a Math&Science summer camp for elementary school students and their teachers from Regional Boarding Schools in Turkey. The camp takes place on the campus of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara.