TCF provided a major grant to underwrite The Golden Age of King Midas, a world premier exhibition at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, which will run between February and November 2016. Through a special agreement signed between the Republic of Turkey and the University of Pennsylvania, Turkey will lend the Penn Museum much of the material unearthed in the main Gordion tumulus, as well as a number of important objects from the tumuli in Lydia and Lycia. These pieces will appear alongside select examples from the Penn Museum's own collections. Archaeologists from Penn have been excavating and conducting research at Gordion since 1950. In 2009-2010, TCF underwrote another major exhibition on Gordion at Penn Museum entitled His Golden Touch: The Gordion Drawings by Piet de Jong, showcased illustrations about the site made by Piet de Jong in 1957.

TCF is pleased to announce its tenth year of collaboration with The World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) in its Spotlight on Turkey program. Spotlight on Turkey runs a full calendar year and provides American educators and the general public an overview of the history of Anatolia and Turkey with a special emphasis on Turkish culture. With a spring Teachers Workshop, a summer Teacher Study Tour and public cultural programs in the fall, the program emphasizes classroom learning and public education about Turkey.

All WACA Councils may apply for the program. Individuals and organizations who wish to bring the program to their community may contact their local WACA council and encourage them to apply for the 2016 program. Applications are due Friday, December 18, 2015.

TCF awarded a major grant to support the Houston Turkish Festival, organized by the American Turkish Association of Houston. The festival, which has been held annually sine the early 2000s, took place on November 14-15 at Jones Plaza. The event included Turkish cuisine, coffee, folklore, dancing, whirling dervishes, fashion and cultural exhibitions. Activities for all ages brought together the community in celebration of Turkish history and culture.

On November 5, YESAM hosted Ömür Tufan, The Director of Topkapı Palace Museum’s Kitchen Section, who presented a seminar on "The Serving Platters and Utensils Used in Ottoman Palace Kitchens II: Glassware and Porcelain." The seminar discussed the different types of Turkish Ottoman glassware, Chinese and European Porcelain and Turkish porcelain dishes used in the Topkapı Palace. Past YESAM lectures are periodically uploaded for online viewing on the TCF Video Gallery.

TCF Culinary Arts Center-YESAM took a group of food enthusiasts to the Northern Aegean Coast for an annual cultural tour on olive and olive oil culture in the Western Anatolian region on November 13-15. The group, guided by author and food culture researcher Nedim Atilla, had a chance to visit the olive groves, participate in an olive harvest, meet olive growers and visit olive oil factories and one of the few private olive oil museums in Turkey.

Turkish cooking traditions are highlighted every month with the YESAM Recipe of the Month, which currently features “Stuffed Leeks,” a traditional winter dish. The 2015 October lecture “Classical Ottoman Rugs, Textiles and Other Objects from Italian Public and Private Collections,” given by Dr. Alberto Boralevi, has been added to the TCF Video Gallery.

Dr. Recep Karadağ of the TCF Cultural Preservation and Natural Dyes Laboratory-DATU participated in the 2015 International Textiles and Costume Congress at Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey on November 4-6. Dr. Karadağ gave a presentation entitled, “The Natural Dyes in Sustainable Reflect the Traces of the Past.” 

Dr. Ayla Ersoy, Professor of Art History at Yeditepe University, presented a lecture on "Askeri Ressamlardan Günümüze Türk Resim Sanatı" (Turkish Paintings in the 20th and 21st Centuries) on November 17. The next lecture program will be held on March 3, 2016: Dr. Chris Roosevelt, Associate Professor of Archaeology at Koç University and the Director of the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC), will give a lecture entitled, “Archaeology, Technology, and Sustainability: Approaches to the Past in the Gediz Valley, Western Turkey” at the Turkish Cultural Foundation in Istanbul.

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

Emine Çiğdem Asrav (TCF Academic Fellow-2015), a Ph.D. candidate at Middle East Technical University, presented her paper "Community Engagement in the Conservation of Historic Rural Landscapes" at the International Symposium ICOMOS-IFLA ISCCL 2015 Annual Meeting in Jeju, Korea, on November 5.

Velika Ivkovska (TCF Academic Fellow-2015), a Ph.D. candidate at Istanbul Technical University, presented her paper "Comparative Analysis between the Istanbul House Plan Types and the Plan Types of the Ottoman Houses on the Panagia District in Kavala, Greece" at the International Conference on Architecture and Spatial Planning in Durres, Albania, on November 7.

Dr. Nikolaos Vryzidis (TCF Academic Fellow-2012), a Junior Fellow at the British School in Athens, gave a lecture entitled “Greek-Orthodox Ecclesiastical Costume during the Ottoman Period: between Tradition and Innovation” at the British School in Athens on November 23.

Marco Cops (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2015), a multimedia artist, curator and consultant for public art, attended a multi-disciplinary workshop in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Başkent University, Ankara, on November 1–15.

Meghan Nuttall Sayres (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2015), a writer, worked on a collaborative project entitled "Street Wise Istanbul" with photographer Aramis Kalay in Istanbul in November 2015.

Tesla Manaf Effendi (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2015), a Jazz composer, guitarist, and music producer, attended the Babayan Culture House Art Residency Program 2015 in Cappadocia, Turkey on November 5 - December 3.

Gracia Octaveni Lumbantobing (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2015), a film and video artist, participated in the Babayan Culture House Art Residency Program 2015 in Cappadocia, Turkey on November 5 - December 3.

Övül Durmuşoğlu (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2015), an independent curator and critic, participated in public programs related to the multinational conference and exhibition project "Solar Fantastic: Cross-Modernities and Historical Narratives in Mexico and Turkey in the XX and XXI Centuries" at the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco (Mexico City) on November 5 and at the Escuela Superior de Arte de Yucatán (Mérida) on November 6.