Highlights of 2008 AnARt Activities

April 2008
Promoted and sold arts and crafts at the annual American Turkish Council Conference.

May 2008
Organized a product development workshop for low income women artisans in Kars in cooperation with Anadolu Kultur, a non-profit NGO based in Istanbul.
British designer Sue Heathcote created woolen accessories for the knitting group. The workshop was made possible by a partial grant from the ArtVenture Foundation.

AnARt Cultural Tour group admire and purchase new products that Kars knitters produced.

Sue and Deniz explain their wool dyeing adventures to the Cultural Tour group.
                                                                                            

Sue Heathcote, an accomplished designer, based her wool designs on traditional Turkish socks.

May 2008
Cultural Tour to Eastern Turkey
We organized a nine day cultural tour to Eastern Turkey for a group of wonderful people from the US and Turkey. We visited Kars, Dogubeyazit, Van and Mardin and various interesting places along the way including Anatolian Artisans projects. Joanne Omang, a former Washington Post reporter  who joined the trip, wrote about this amazing adventure. To read Joanne’s article please go to: Time Traveling with Anatolian Artisans.
To see photos of 2008 tour, go to Gallery page and click on 2008 Cultural Tour.

Micro-Business training in Sanliurfa
AnARt delivered training for low income women in the GAP region on behalf of HasNa. The training was sponsored by HasNa in cooperation with the GAP Administration.

July 2008
Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

 

AnARt took part in the Santa Fe Int. Folk Art Market again this year with textile artist Hulya Ozer. Ozer’s designs using Turkish lacework “oya” attracted a lot of attention. Besides interacting with visitors to the Market, Hulya Ozer and Yildiz Yagci had the opportunity to meet with artisans from around the globe like the Masai artisans from Africa above.

October 2008
MUDO Sales
MUDO, an upscale chain department store in Turkey, agreed to carry AnARt wool products at their stores as part of their social projects. Our diverse group of knitters generated income through the sales of these hand-knit products.
We thank MUDO staff and its president Mr. Mustafa Taviloglu for their support.

Nov. 2008
Holiday Sale
AnARt annual holiday sale was held on Nov.22-23 at Nevzer Stacey’s NW Washington home. Despite the economic crisis there was a lot of interest in Turkish arts and crafts.