During the first half of 2016, teachers from across the United States had a chance to learn about Turkey at six Teacher Workshops, which took place as part of the national educational program "Spotlight on Turkey", organized jointly with chapters of the World Affairs Councils of America and TCF, and funded by a major TCF grant.

The workshops were organized by the Dayton Council on World Affairs; Cleveland Council on World Affairs; World Affairs Council of Seattle; Tennessee World Affairs Council; International Relations Council Kansas City; Santa Fe Council on International Relations. 135 educators from 76 schools participated in these workshops, with an estimated student impact of over 10,000.

The goal of the Spotlight on Turkey program is to enhance the global classroom through teacher education and to help bring Turkey and its region to American students. Workshops emphasize classroom learning and public education about Anatolian history and civilizations, as well as contemporary Turkey. Since 2007, over 3,600 teachers learned about Turkey at these workshops with an estimated impact of nearly 380,000 students. Teachers selected from among participants in the workshops get a chance to visit Turkey on the TCF Teacher Study Tours and 575 teachers have so far participated in this travel education program.

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.

A TCF grant supported the New York State International Film Festival, July 9-15, 2016 at the Madison Theater in Albany, NY. The festival featured workshops taught by film experts and directors. Several Turkish films were shown to support the festival’s goal of creating a new venue for Turkish cinema and filmmakers in the U.S. in addition to educating the public about Turkish cinema.

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

Past YESAM lectures on Turkey’s culinary heritage are available for online viewing in the TCF Video Gallery.

Painter Tan Taşpolatoğlu (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2016), is participating in his residency program for the Derealization project at Lincoln Square Artist Guild in Chicago. His solo exhibition will be on show at the Lincoln Square Artist Guild from September 10 through October 1.

İdil Kemer (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2016), a dance artist and movement/improvisation teacher, is attending the Dance OMI residency program in Ghent, New York.