THE TRANSFORMATION OF ISTANBUL & ARTS IN TURKEY:
HOW ANCIENT BECAME CONTEMPORARY

Lecture

by ARNOLD REISMAN

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Howard Thurman Center at Boston University
775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

Arnold Reisman will autograph his books, "Arts in Turkey: How Ancient Became Contemporary" and "The Transformation of Istanbul: Art Galleries Reviving Decaying Spaces"

For over four centuries, religion had a significant impact in the cultural life of the Ottoman Empire. Then, culture was a non factor in the economy, but that changed with the establishment of the secular Turkish Republic in 1923. As a country being rebuilt out of the ruins of a war, it was government policy to promote and support western performing and visual arts, and benefiting from central and west European artistic talents seeking refuge from Nazism. These reforms in Turkey have gained a momentum of their own, and over the years, arts and culture in Turkey have reached new places. Now cultural offerings have an important impact on tourism. International music and opera festivals abound in Turkey and Istanbul having transformed many of its underused industrial and commercial spaces from being a blight to world-class art galleries and museums is poised to become the cultural capital of Europe in 2010. -- Arnold Reisman

ARNOLD REISMAN

Arnold Reisman received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in engineering from UCLA. He is a registered Professional Engineer in California, Wisconsin, and Ohio, and has published over 300 papers in refereed journals, along with 16 books. After 27 years as Professor of Operations Research at CWRU, Reisman retired in 1994. Among his current research interests is the history of German-speaking exiled professors starting in 1933 and their impact on science in general and Turkish universities in particular. Reisman is still actively pursuing his lifelong interest in sculpting. He is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, American Men and Women of Science, and Two Thousand Notable Americans, and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His most recently published books are: Turkey's Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk’s Vision; Classical European Music and Opera: The Case of Post-Ottoman Turkey; Arts in Turkey: How Ancient Became Contemporary; and SHOAH: Turkey, the US and the UK.

Co-presented with the Howard Thurman Center at Boston University