Support From The Sabanci Foundation To Young Artists

Created with late Sakip Sabanci’s aim of supporting art, guiding the young to art and encouraging achievements, Sakip Sabanci Art Awards were given to winners in the 22nd award ceremony in Istanbul.

A monetary award equivalent of 240 republic gold coins were awarded to 9 students graduating with a ranking in the first three from Painting, Sculpture, and Traditional Turkish Arts departments in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University within the scope of art awards aiming to support art and artists that play a significant role in social development by the Sabanci Foundation.

Hosted by Turkan Sabanci and Prof. Yalcın Karayagız, President of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, the award ceremony took place with the attendance of Sevil Sabanci, member of Sabanci Holding Board of Directors, and Zerrin Koyunsagan, General Manager of the Sabanci Foundation, as well as many distinguished names of business and art circles and social life such as Erol Evgin, Halit Kivanc, Turkan Gursel and Esin Demiroren.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Fatma Mihriban Aktari, an 84 year old graduate of 2014-2015 academic year in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, stated that 61 years of her life passed with a longing for Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, one of the deep-rooted institutions in Turkey with a history of 132 years. She added: “How happy I am that, with the 2011 student amnesty, I returned to my education that I had to leave incomplete and that today I completed my education with my friends who received awards.” Aktari thanked all those who contributed to Sakip Sabanci Art Awards. He said: “As an individual who struggled with challenges all his life, I can tell you that I have no doubt that both the material and moral support given by the Sabancı Foundation will contribute to the art lives of these very valuable 9 students.”

Advising the young, Aktari said: “When you make a good deed, be peaceful. Be always respectful, always honest, always helpful, always hardworking. Let these be the principles of your life. Live with nice feelings and do not give up reading.”

“We support projects that will contribute to cultural development”

Speaking at the award ceremony, Zerrin Koyunsagan, General Manager of the Sabanci Foundation, expressed that children born 22 years ago graduated from this university and Sakip Sabanci was already thinking about them even before they opened their eyes to the world. She went onto say: “Art Awards were presented with late Sakip Sabanci’s aim of supporting art, guiding the young to art and encouraging achievements. Believing that art and artists were the wealth of societies, Mr. Sabanci wanted to crown achievements with awards. Therefore, he valued contributing to creative powers of artists and encouraging people to love art. As the Sabanci Foundation, we also embrace his valuable legacy and preserve it by passing it down to new generations.”

Stating that various ways of contributing to social development exist, Koyunsagan said: “Art is only one of these... Among the investments made in art by the Sabanci Foundation are Sabanci International Adana Theater Festival, which has been organized for 17 years with a reach to nearly 100 thousand art lovers; Turkish National Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, whose establishment we ensured; Mehtap Ar Children’s Theater, through which we introduced almost 1 million children with the magical world of theatre; and Metropolis Archeological Excavations.”

After her speech, Zerrin Koyunsagan presented students their awards. 

Ranking first, second and third in their departments respectively, the winners of 2015 Sakip Sabanci Art Awards were Emine Dokumaci, Merve Yilmaz and Ceyhun Topcu in Painting; Sadi Yetkili, Aynur Ozturk and Nergiz Yesil in Sculpture; Gabriel Tezel, Demet Ozkartal andFadime Karatas in Traditional Turkish Arts.