Home to a wealth of history, a vibrant arts and cultural scene and the unique cosmopolitanism of a city linking Europe and Asia, the West and the East, Istanbul is gearing up for its title of European Capital of Culture in 2010. As European Capital of Culture for 2010, Istanbul will host a plethora of events encompassing the visual arts and museums, music and theatre, literature, cinema, and traditional arts.
Many projects are already underway, from restoration work on historic sites to the construction of brandnew art and cultural centres, from ongoing festivals and arts events to the commissioning of new artistic works for 2010. All of these aim to revive Istanbul’s cultural heritage, to reinforce the city’s cultural infrastructure to allow the largest participation possible and to bring about a gigantic urban transformation with art and culture at its centre. In short, Istanbul is reemerging as one of the world's great metropolises, with a cultural vibrancy that flows through its every artery.
In preparation for 2010, extensive restoration work has begun on some of Istanbul’s most important historical sites and monuments. The mosaics and handdrawn decorations in several sections of Hagia Sophia are being restored, as are the kitchens of the Topkapi Palace which house the palace’s Chinese and Japanese porcelain collection, one of the richest such collections in the world and the largest outside China. There are also plans to establish an icon museum in Aya Irini, which would house a research, documentation and educational centre and increase the capacity of the area to display Byzantine icons and mosaics. Another important project will be the establishment of an ‘Architect Sinan Research Centre and Architect Sinan Museum’ in the Süleymaniye Mosque complex that was built by renowned Ottoman architect Sinan between 1550 and 1557. The mission of this research centre and museum will be to increase international awareness of Turkish art and architecture and to ensure that Sinan, the Ottoman Empire’s most talented and influential architect, takes his rightful place in the history of world art and architecture.
‘Istanpoli’, which means ‘towards the city’, is a project hosted by avantgarde performing arts venu Garajistanbul. Foreign performance artists Michael Laub, Rimini Protokoll, Claude Wampler and Meg Stuart have been invited by local artists Mustafa Avkıran and Övül Avkıran, the art directors of Garajistanbul, to spend some time in Istanbul and translate their experiences into expression. Their productions will be first performed in Istanbul and will then tour various European cities, and the performances and related workshops will be documented in a DVD and a book. The production with Rimini Protokoll is being jointly realised with the Ruhr (Essen) 2010 European Capital of Culture.
Turkey’s tourism industry has seen remarkable growth over the past few years, proof of the country’s continued popularity as a travel destination in defiance of the global economic crisis. Turkey received 18,694,028 visitors in the first 8 months of 2009, up 1.1% in the same period last year, with annual tourist numbers expected to reach 33 million by 2012. British visitors to Istanbul have also recorded incredible growth at 23% in the first 8 months of 2009, whilst a total of 4.18 million tourists arrived in Istanbul globally, a 2.4% yearonyear increase. PricewaterhouseCoopers anticipates that Turkey’s tourism sector will expand by 12.1% between 2010 and 2013. New investments in the tourism sector, a more sophisticated brand of tourism, wider choice of alternatives and the good value of the Turkish Lira for foreign visitors have all contributed to this success.
