Nine young people following their passions and dreams have taken action to create one of the premier institutions in Turkey in the fields of world music culture and contemporary art, establishing the Çengel Sanat (art center) in November 2006.

The center, located in an old three-story building in İstanbul's Kadıköy district, hosts a number of workshops and seminars on traditional and contemporary art. It also offers preparatory courses for conservatories and schools of fine art. The center admits only a limited number of applicants. Music classes are held on a one-on-one basis.
Most founders of the center are musicologists. Eray Düzgünsoy, born in 1982, is the director of the center. He plays guitar, Afghan rebab and tar. Noting that they are a young and experienced team, Düzgünsoy says: "Our goal in establishing Çengel Sanat was to make this place embrace both traditional and modern art. I believe that we have achieved this goal through a number of workshops and seminars." Can Uludağ, director for corporate communications at the center, adds that students admitted to the center achieve more than playing a particular instrument, recalling that they study that instrument extensively. Uludağ says, "We have launched a number of workshops for a variety of instruments that you could barely find in Turkey."

Music workshops at the center offer training for classical musical instruments including guitar, piano, flute and violin as well as instruments from different cultures, including the didgeridoo, an instrument played by Australia's Aborigines. Tolga Ünaldı, an academic at Yıldız Technical University, teaches this instrument, which is played in a seated position. Last year, 10 students attended the course. Instructor Ünaldı explains why people want to play didgeridoo: "You fall in love with its tune. People want to play different instruments, but they are unable to find this opportunity everywhere." This year, a special course will be offered on tabla, a fundamental rhythm instrument in Indian music culture.

Çengel Sanat also offers courses on traditional arts like miniature and marbling (ebru). M. Fakih Kademoğlu, born in 1978, teaches ebru as well as the history, culture, aesthetics and types of this particular art. Başak Doğan supervises the miniature and ebru workshop.

Çengel Sanat attracts attention with its interactive workshops. Renowned journalist Nuriye Akman meets with students to teach techniques on asking the right kind of questions whereas writer Bedirhan Toprak speaks at the novel workshop and film director-producer Fehmi Gerçeker at the film workshop. Akman meets with the students once a week at the workshop where she conveys her experiences to the younger generation. Akman says: "Asking questions is the very foundation of good communication. Proper answers are received only through proper questions. A question is a tool for not only learning something but also for changing the flow of life. Asking is a matter of mastery. But questions are not tools that are only needed by journalists, lawyers and teachers. Regardless of profession, age and level of education, everyone unknowingly interviews, judges and teaches everyone else in their daily lives. Most of the time, they do not realize that their questions actually determine the quality of a conversation. What makes communication a success or a failure is sometimes the order of the words in the question whereas it is sometimes the emphasis put on a particular word, sometimes the tone of the voice and sometimes the timing."

This season Çengel Sanat's interesting offers include a film class on the New York School by Gerçeker. At the workshop, participants will collaboratively complete all production phases of a movie. The interactive workshop will enable the participants to determine their own direction. Gerçeker, who puts emphasis on practice in moviemaking, will allow students to use the camera starting from the first day. Only 10 students will be admitted to the workshop to make the studies more effective. Registration is open until Oct. 19.

Çengel Sanat represents Turkey in Hungary

Çengel Sanat also has a music group, the Yakaza Ensemble, which participated in the Ars Geometrica Festival held in Pecs, Hungary, in June. The group will also give the opening concert at the Balkan World Music Festival, to be held in the same city from Sept. 18-21. Commenting on their concerts, seminars and exhibitions in Pecs, one of the cities to assume the title of European Capital of Culture in 2010 along with İstanbul, musicologist and composer Düzgünsoy says, "I wish we could use this experience for İstanbul 2010." For more information, visit www.cengelsanat.com.

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