its Initiators
Esra A. Aysun
As co-founder and co-director of ¨cˇu'm„a*, Esra A. Aysun is an experienced local cultural operator and a lecturer on arts management. Aysun has completed her MA at the Department of Performing Arts Administration of the New York University, NY, USA. In her long years of professional experience, Aysun worked at eminent arts institutions such as Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Pozitif Productions (Istanbul) and Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York, USA) and Galerist (Istanbul).
Aysun is currently one of the partners and the International Project Consultant for the much-acknowledged contemporary theatre company Dot. She has been lecturing on Arts and Culture Management at the Arts Management Departments of various universities as of 2004. Aysun is the local Coordinator in Turkey for Arts and Culture Network Program of the Open Society Institute, Budapest, Hungary and a trainer and researcher at the Strategies for Local Cultural Policies Program co-initiated by Istanbul Bilgi University, ECF, Anadolu Kultur and Boekmanstichting since 2008. Aysun is a board member of the IETM (International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, Brussels) and the European Cultural Association (Istanbul).
Ece Pazarbaşı
As co-founder and co-director of ¨cˇu'm„a*, Ece Pazarbaşı has upto this day been working as a director, curator and manager of culture and contemporary arts projects. Pazarbaşı has received her MFA degree from Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture of Bilkent Univeristy, Ankara. Currently working as consultant for ADACH (Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage), she has been recently invited to take part in the operational team of TANAS, the project space for contemporary Turkish art in Berlin with the grant from Rave Foundation. She has operated actively in establishing a contemporary Turkish Art collection for the Opymos Collection and New York based Artist Pension Trust Dubai. In the last seven years on and off she has acted as the executive assistant to director of the Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center where she has been assigned on several different freelance projects.
Being the assistant curator of the 52nd Venice Biennial Turkish Pavilion (2007), creator and director of the education and festival programme Meeting Point: Gulpinar (2007), project manager of "Orhan Pamuk: Museum of Innocence" that was planned to take place at Frankfurt Schirn Kunsthalle (2007-2008), Contemporary Art Exhibitions Director at Pera Museum (2005-2006) and assistant to director at Proje4L-Istanbul Museum of Contemporary Art (2002-2003) have been her recent professional responsibilities.
