I have been involved with the Rives of The World project for two years now and I have to say that it was a blast for so many different reasons! When I first heard about the project it sounded very interesting and got me very excited. It had an international side to it that the children in Turkey can benefit and it will also give them a chance to work at an exciting art project. British Council initiated project also involved different parties such as İstanbul Ministry of Education, public schools in Turkey and in UK and Thames River Festival.

So, we got to work and after selecting the schools they all started to make their research on the Bosphorus about their theme. For the public schools in Istanbul, to go out of school and make a field trip to the Bosphorus was a blast! After the information they gathered they have learned that there was so much more to learn about the Bosphorus and İstanbul. The field trips and research led to a series of workshops with me at each school.  The financial support of British Council, The Thames Festival Trust and HSBC Global Education Fund made the workshops and the trips much easier for those schools to participate in an extracurricular activity with an international ingredient. For me, as an artist, it was a great experience to work with the students and teachers. I have seen that both students and teachers were so involved and excited about the project. The project made it possible for me to introduce some different materials and techniques to children and the teachers. It was a two way learning process, where I learned from the students and teachers and they have learned from me. A good example would be the work that we have created at the Rami Primary School. I had very little experience with “The Art of Ebru”, special and traditional marbling technique of the Ottoman times, and their teacher Ms. Meryem had been doing it for some time. Because their theme was “River and Pollution” we decided to choose “Ebru” since it is about water and that it is a traditional Turkish/Ottoman art technique. This project proved to be a three way learning process where everyone; myself, students and the teachers, learned from one another! It was a great experience for all parties.

Over all the making/creating of the art works at schools turned out to be a success for everyone. For most part students and teachers were proud to represent Turkey on an international project.

One challenging issue during the project was the difficulty of the Istanbul schools on communicating with their partner schools in London. If it is eliminated for the future elements of the project, it would strengthen the international ingredient of it and would make it more powerful in so many different levels but most of all on the lives of the students who participate!       

One other part that I thought turned out to be great was the exhibitions and the workshop sessions , where students produced their own pieces of arts, that we have pursued in three different venues. Even though the planning, designing and the organization were immense work everything turned out to be great with no problems! We had an exhibition at Kadıköy Ferry Port, one of the busiest ferry ports in Istanbul on the Asian side of Istanbul. Since the project was about the Bosphorus we thought ferry port would be a good venue for an exhibition. The other exhibition venue we choose was the DEPO, which is a contemporary art gallery on the European side of Istanbul. So, we thought to cover both continents with these two exhibitions. We, British Council and PACE Kids Art Center, also designed an interactive education program for the exhibition. Program consisted of two stages. On the first stage students were given information about the Rivers of The World project and toured the exhibition exploring and discussing the works, techniques and approaches used by their fellow students both from Istanbul and London. They all saw and talked about how differently both schools approached the same themes. Then on the second stage we have given them an opportunity to participate to the program by using a material and technique used at the art works. They were asked to draw and color Bosphorus and Istanbul where they live in. We asked them to put their perspective on the materials they were given. They made two pieces where we kept one piece to create a work to send to The River Thames Festival committee, the other piece was theirs to keep as souvenir of the project and the day they have spent at the exhibition. Results turned out to be fantastic as we had wonderful feedback from both the students and the teachers. Our last but not least exhibition venues were the Shopping Malls in Istanbul. We have presented the project and the exhibition at 4 different malls spread out in Istanbul to do a traveling exhibition. We also wanted to offer the workshop program at each mall; depending on those malls’ availability; 3 of those shopping malls agreed to cover the expenses of the workshop programme. So, we were able to offer workshop sessions for the children free of charge at 3 of those shopping malls.

We also designed bookmarks from the art works of the Istanbul schools and handed them out in the malls and given them to students and children that have participated to the education program.

So after immense planning and organization we had a very successful exhibition marathon!

The Rivers of The World project turned out to be a great success that have touched so many lives of children and adults and made them look at their own city and Bosphorus from a very different and artistic perspective!

Thank you all!

N. Baris Karayazgan
PACE Kids Art Center
Artist Facilitator