Nurtured by its participatory tradition open to debate, and treating the year 2010 as a new beginning, Çanakkale proposed the idea of Çanakkale 2010 in order to place the cultural policy debate on the agenda of the city and to disseminate culture and art activities across the whole of the city. This idea, which was proposed during meetings organized within the scope of the Strategies for Local Cultural Policies project was transformed into a year-long project with the participation of civil initiatives, local administrations and the university. Throughout the year, a dynamic culture and arts scene was created for all citizens with events that were free of charge. The people of Çanakkale discussed and focused on the problems of the city with artists, writers and urban planners from out of town, and voiced and shared their proposals and complaints. Citizens came together not only to share but also to produce, creating an opportunity for urban actors to act together.
Çanakkale 2010 was organized around two main areas of events. The first of these was the city debates, realized under the title 12 Months/12 Themes. A debate meeting was organized every month in order to form the city’s cultural policies in a participatory manner and to form a debate platform in the city, and a manifesto was prepared. The second area was to bring together the contiuing or planned events in the city around the 12 themes that were determined, in order to increase the debate and art activity in the city. From January to December 2010 citizens debated the themes Movement, Communication, Urban Identity and Awareness, Tourism, Ceramics and Art in the City, Rural City and Agricultural Economy, Water, Participation and Coexistence, Peace, Cultural Heritage, Public Spaces and Pluralism. The project that began in January 2010 came to a close on 31 December. In view of the participatory experience created by the Çanakkale 2010 project, in November 2010, the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) network that has its center in Barcelona elected the project as an example of international good practice.
Çanakkale 2010, has been organised by Anadolu Kultur supervision and local civil initiatives decision making and with the support and collaboration of Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affaires MATRA Program, Çanakkale Municipality, Governorship of Çanakkale, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University.
Project Team:
Local Cultural Policies Project Coordinator: Ülkü Zümray Kutlu
Project Coordinator: İsmail Erten
Art Directors: International Çanakkale Biennial (Seyhan Boztepe and Ezgi Yemenicioğlu Negir)
Cultural Directors: Bahattin Köylü and Erdinç Alnıak
Communication Directors: Eyüp Görgüler and Didem Gürdoğan
Special Thanks:
Deniz Giray, Gökçe Dervişoğlu Okandan, Binnur Zengin Berkholz, Kubilay Özmen, Bige Örer, Esra Aysun, Çiğdem Mater, Aslı Çarkoğlu, Eylem Ertürk, Ayça İnce, Gamze Hızlı, Deniz Ünsal, Philipp Dietachmair, Marianna Kajantie, Corina Racenau, Jordi Pascual, Liz Amado, Nesra Gürbüz, Tamar Nalcı, Carol LaMotte, Meltem Aslan, Şengül Ertürk