Sarkis: "Site" exhibition – 11 September 2009 to 10 January 2010
İstanbul Modern is hosting "Site", the most comprehensive exhibition ever undertaken in Turkey by Sarkis, one of today's leading names in contemporary art. The exhibition is being mounted with the contributions of the Promotion Fund of the Prime Ministry. It is being sponsored by the museum's main sponsor, Garanti Bank. In addition to being the first time that İstanbul Modern has ever hosted an exhibition by a living contemporary artist, "Site" also gives Sarkis an opportunity to reinterpret all of the different periods of his 50-year career.
Curated by İstanbul Modern's Chief Curator Levent Çalıkoğlu, "Site" will open on 11 September 2009 and run until 10 January 2010. The exhibition is designed to link all of the spaces of the museum to one another. In "Site", Sarkis creates a city replete with the evidence of his past in the form of photographs taken from more than a hundred of his previous exhibitions, works that he has invited from European museum collections, and objects that he has been accumulating over the years in his studios.
"Site" is being mounted with the contributions of the Promotion Fund of the Prime Ministry and of the museum's main sponsor, Garanti Bank. The exhibition's supporters include the Municipality of Metropolitan Istanbul, Project Sponsor Marshal, Design and Advertising Sponsor RPM, Lighting Sponsor Tepta Aydınlatma, Accommodation Sponsor Point Hotel, the French Cultural Center, the Goethe Institute, NTV, Simge Antalis Kağıt, Borusan Mannesmann, Sony, Doluca, Winsor & Newton and Live Sanat, and Sabuncakis Şişli.
"Site" gives viewers a chance to become closely familiar with Sarkis's art and its all-embracing multidisciplinarity. During the "Site" exhibition, not just İstanbul Modern's Temporary Exhibition Hall but also its Permanent Exhibition Hall, Photography Gallery, and Cinema will be serving as venues for a variety of activities and programs: photographs and films shot by the artist will be shown in the museum's Photography Gallery; the Education and Social Projects Department will be running a "Watercolor in Water Workshop"; Sarkis will be conducting a "School" for eight young artists; piano concerts will be held in the central plaza of "Site"; Sarkis will meet with viewers in a series of talk; NTV has prepared a comprehensive documentary about Sarkis to mark the exhibition.
"Design Cities " an exhibition organized jointly by the London Design Museum and İstanbul Modern Art Museum, will be open to visitors at İstanbul Modern from 23 April to 10 August 2008. 
"Design Cities" brings together works by designers from the 19th century to the present day who changed the way the world looks at urban design. Paralleling this exhibition, the İstanbul Modern Education and Social Projects Unit's education sponsor GarantiBank is taking part in the preparation of a "Young Urban Designers" training program in which children and teenagers will be participating in past and future design culture practices that take the basic rules of design as their point of departure while also making designs using geometric forms and creating extraordinary spaces of their own. In another addition to the "Artist Encounters " series, designer Aziz Sarıyer and architect Nevzat Sayın will be in charge of two separate workshops in which the meaning of design in our everyday lives will be probed. "Workshop Works", another activity, will be inviting young designers to do research, develop creative ideas, transform their ideas into visuals, discover materials, and experience all the steps that are involved in design work.
For more information and to reserve a place call 0212 334 7341.
GarantiBank sponsors art education for kids at İstanbul Modern
In cooperation with Paris Centre Georges Pompidou, İstanbul Modern Art Museum launched a three-year art education program for kids. The program, called "Genç İstanbul Modern" ("Young İstanbul Modern"), is being sponsored by GarantiBank and has been continuing since May 2007.
With thirty years of experience in of art education, Centre Georges Pompidou is working closely with İstanbul Modern's Education and Social Projects Unit to put together art education programs specially designed for teenagers as well as young children. The first program of its kind in our country, Young İstanbul Modern will be organizing six-week workshops and exhibitions twice a year that offer hands-on practical training for kids in the 6-16 age group.
During the three-year run of Young İstanbul Modern, kids and their families visiting Young İstanbul Modern will have access to the works of such masters of Modern Art as Brancusi, Matisse, and Picasso and be able to discover their worlds through creative interactive learning.
The regular education programs organized by İstanbul Modern and sponsored by GarantiBank will also be continuing as well. Designed for Garanti Mini Bank members in the 6-12 age group, these hour-long programs begin at 11:00 every Sunday morning when the museum is open. Nine different activities are conducted every month for those in the 6 to 9 and those in the 10 to 12 age groups.