INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION OF VISUAL ARTS’ SYMPOSIUM

Marmara University-Faculty of Education and Bilfen Schools, 2-6 APRIL 2007

Figure1: A conference at Marmara University (Insert photo oo54)

The symposium about art education held in Istanbul in 2007 at the University of Marmara and
the Bilfen College called “New Tendencies in Visual Arts” was an amazing experience for
me, I had attended many symposiums during my life but this one was truly special in the
format and in the contents. There might be some written rules about the meaning of congress,
symposium or seminary. But, in practice, I never understood what were the differences
between the three, specially the meaning of symposium because they are so different from
country to country , and sometimes they are quite boring. But it was not the case in Turkey,
on the contrary it was a vividly experience and I learned so much with all the people
involved.

The Organization committee comprised a team with teachers from the university of Marmara
and teachers from Bilfen Schools: Prof. Dr. Ayşe ÖZEL (Chair of Dep. of Fine Arts, Faculty
of Atatürk Art Edu.,M.U.) , Bertan MUTLUAY (Chair of Art Department Bilfen Çamlıca
School), Art Instructor Şerif GÜNYAR (M.U.), Art Instructor Ferhat Kamil SATICI (M.U.)
and the Research Assistant Alpaslan UÇAR ( M.U. ) . The organizers of the event drew their
symposium upon the assumption that art education is needed to improve the society ,
according to the programme: ‘We strongly believe that a positive attitude which values
thinking, searching the concern for beauty and uniqueness and esthetic perspective will bring
us to a more beautiful and more peaceful future’. And this message was explicit during the
symposium, we felt that art education was important for the students in the Bilfen schools and
to the future art teachers at the university of Marmara.

I felt during the smooth development of the programme that artists and art teachers were
collaborating through making art and talking about art education . By combining exhibition of
teachers and students art works, traditional lectures and workshops in the conference room at
the university with workshops at the Bilfen schools, which were more or less art lessons open
for everybody the symposium offered a very innovative and interesting format.

Lectures and workshops were developed by art education specialists such as: Drs. Ayşe
ÖZEL ,. Ahmet ÖZOL, Vesile AYKAÇ , Angelika PLANK , Olcay KIRIŞOĞLU, Lea
CONTESTABİLE described new trends in art education and current projects illustrating
such tendencies, for example the Angelika Plank ‘s workshop called ‘sounds of water’
which described a successful integrated art project in Austria combining music and new
technologies through development of artistic knowledge and critical skills. Olcay Kirişoğlu’s
lecture convinced all the participants about the need for paying more attention to visual
culture and popular arts, Lea Contestabile , an Italian artist and director of a art museum for
children in Accademia di Belle Arti, L’Aquila, showed us how important is art appreciation
and discussion of art works for children.

Figure 2 : An workshop at Bilfen School (Insert photo 0093)

But the great success of the symposium was in the activities at the school with invited
practicing artists. All the afternoon workshops were held at Bilfen school, not far away from
the University of Marmara. Bilfen school is an incredible complex of education with very
good resources for children. The Director of the school Nurşen Kayatürk must be proud of
the students and the teachers. Children spoke fluently English language and revealed great
curiosity and knowledge in art. During the workshops I observed that they were making
relevant questions to the teachers. There are many art rooms in the school, children are able to
attend extra-curricular activities in art clubs such as music (with several sorts of instruments),
dance (several types of dance), and visual art clubs (photography, fashion design, painting,
ceramics, caricature). In the corridors I was able to see wonderful art works made by children
using different techniques and styles. I was specially impressed by a very postmodern collage
where influences of contemporary Turkish artists were quite evident.

The chair of the art department at Bilfen Çamlıca School and also one of the symposium
organizers Bertan Mutluay is a very strong women, she was taking care of the symposium
paying attention to every detail, her collaborators at Bilfen, the art teachers were all very
efficient and contaminated us, the foreigners, with the particular happiness of Turkish people.

The other part of the symposium consisted on a kind of artists in residence, artists from
Turkey and abroad were invited to work at Bilfen ; the ceramist Maruta RAUDE from Latvia,
the sculptor Susanne ALBRECHT and the painter Christine ENGELS from Germany, the
amazing Turkish ceramist Şerif GÜNYAR ( Marmara University ), and the Turkish painters
Maide BULAK, Beyza BOYNUDELİK, Selahattin AYDÝN, Þeyda CESUR and Murat
ILGIN. The artists were making exciting works of art showing the diversity of current
tendencies in the contemporary art field, during the symposium children contacted the artists,
making questions and discussing the art works with their authors.

Figure3: installation by Susanne ALBRECHTi

Figure 4: children observing the ceramist Maruta Rauda working

I will never forget this symposium, people like Alp, Ayse, Ferhat and Bertan, who organized
the event and young people like Inci, Melek, future art teachers, the young painter Beyza, and
children like Emre, Deniz, Zeynep, Sera and Gizem will stay in my memories forever as the
true portrait of a country full of joy and hope in a more peaceful world.

April 2007
Teresa Eça
i
Susanne ALBRECHT made a sculpture using wood and textiles called: ‘ adopting an artist’ , she intended the artwork
to be adopted during a period of time , so children could be aware of what it is to be an art collector