Tonga Uriarte, Yesim
The State Theatres in Turkey: Analyses on Valuation and the Management Model.
In: 4th Annual International Conference on Visual and Performing Arts, June 3-6, 2013, Athens, Greece
pp. 1-19.
ISSN 2241-2891.
(2013)
Abstract
Even though accessibility of culture, preservation and promotion of arts are treated mainly as the responsibility of the State in Turkey, the government’s approach was influenced by the global neoliberal currents and eventually directed towards a market-oriented approach, moving the position of the State from ‘the initiator’ towards ‘the regulator’ side over the last decades. Within this context, the State Theatres and the Istanbul City Municipal Theatre (ICMT), which are among the deep-rooted, oldest public arts institutions, have recently become the target of some regulatory changes in the government's agenda. The regulation changes in ICMT comprising the transfer of the management from actors to municipality officers, including such duties as the selection of plays, casting actors, and hiring technical staff, were put in action on 12 April 2012. Concurrently, the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement in favor of privatization of the State Theatres received reactions from the public. The main argument of the public opposition was that the freedom of state-supported art would be heavily damaged with the enactment of the new regulations. State support, it was maintained, is of crucial importance for arts production in a developing country such as Turkey.
Therefore, this paper aims to contribute those debates with the examination of efficacy of the State Theatres in Turkey. Besides, valuation of the State Theatres by the public will be discussed through the results of a public opinion survey on a test group. Following the analysis, recommendations for development of a more suitable management model for state-supported theatres in Turkey will be provided.
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