The Turkish Cultural Foundation’s Culinary Arts Center is organizing a culinary cultural tour to the town of Çorum, Turkey to take place from October 28 - 30, 2016. The tour will be led by culinary culture researcher Asuman Albayrak and will highlight the unique cuisine and ingredients of Çorum. Participants will have the opportunity to see how the town’s famous roasted chickpeas, or “leblebi”, are made and taste the delicate baklava of the region in addition to other local specialties. For more information on the tour please click here.

TCF - YESAM Project Executive Banu Özden was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey to participate took part in the 1^st International Traditional Cuisine Conference in Mexico City. She presented on “Exploring Turkey’s Culinary Heritage” and demonstrated the cooking of the traditional Turkish dish “hünkar beğendi”.

Turkish cooking traditions are highlighted every month with YESAM Recipe of the Month. This month features a specialty dish of the fall season, “stew of saffron milkcap mushrooms.”

Natural pigments developed at the TCF Cultural Heritage Preservation and Natural Dyes Laboratory (TCF-DATU) under ARMAGGAN sponsorship are on display at ARMAGGAN Art & Design Gallery's “Nature's Colors - Doğanın Renkleri” exhibition. The research team at TCF-DATU created a line of 30 organic pigments for specific use in the arts and cultural preservation. The pigments were generated from plants, insects, sea shells and natural organic lake pigments and are completely chemicals free. A creative project developed by ARMAGGAN Art & Design Gallery introduced the pigments to a select group of painters with a commission to create one painting for the exhibition. The exhibition will remain on view until November 16, 2016. The color palette of the natural dyes proved both a challenge and a creative opportunity for the artists. The results of the artists' experimentation with natural dyes will be juxtaposed with their works created with oil or paints dyes at the exhibition. The exhibition's featured artists are Sıla Gür, Nilüfer Tokay, Aysun Bozuklu, Nilgün Sabar, Betül Cankara, Şevket Arık, Sinem Kaya, Güneş Özmen, Neşe Çoğal, Hüseyin Rüstemoğlu, Doruk Pireci, İrem Çamlıca and Desen Halıçınarlı. In addition to use in new artistic creations, the pigments will also find application in the restoration of historical paintings, iconography and wall paintings, which were created with natural dyes.

A TCF grant will underwrite a series of music concerts in the U.S. and Canada presented by Istanbulive VII, an annual celebration of Turkish music produced by Serdar Ilhan and Mehmet Dede. Launched in 2009 and supported by TCF for several years, Istanbulive VII will feature the U.S. debut of the Taksim Trio with concerts at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto on October 6, the Berklee College of Music in Boston on October 7, and the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre New York on October 8. The Taksim Trio features Hüsnü Şenlendirici on the clarinet, İsmail Tunçbilek on the bağlama, and Aytaç Doğan on the kanun.

TCF provided a grant to the Museum of Fine Art in Houston to support the 4th Annual Houston Turkish Film Festival. The festival takes place between September 29 - October 2, 2016, and will showcase an impressive line-up of Turkish films including Sivas, directed by Kaan Müjdeci; Ivy, directed by Tolga Karaçelik; and the popular documentary The Cats of İstanbul, directed by Ceyda Torun.

Ekin Akalın (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2016), an associate researcher at the İstanbul French Institute of Anatolian Studies, conducted an inventorial study of the Ottoman collection at the Pierre Loti House in Rochefort on September 5-9, 2016.

Ceramist İpek Kotan (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2016) is participating in the residency program at the European Ceramic Workcentre in Oisterwijk, Netherlands from September 5 to November 5, 2016.

Lerna Babikyan (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2016), dancer, performer, choreographer and dance pedagogue, participated in the residency program of Escola Estudio Raizvanguarda from August 29 to September 30, 2016.

Oud player and composer Mehmet Polat (TCFCultural Exchange Fellow-2016), Ney player Pelin Başar (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2016), and ngoni & percussion player Victor Sams (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2016) performed as the Mehmet Polat Trio on their U.S. concert tour in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, and Phoenix between August 11 and September 11, 2016.

Painter Tan Taşpolatoğlu (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2016) participated in the residency program for the Derealization project at the Lincoln Square Artist Guild in Chicago from July 1 to October 1, 2016. He held a solo exhibition titled "Derealisation II" at the Scharpenberg Art Gallery of the Dank Haus German American Cultural Center in Chicago between September 10 - October 1, 2016.