The first day of the event started with the opening speeches given by Leman Yilmaz, the director of Istanbul Theater Festival, and the Cultural Attaché of the Dutch Consulate General in Istanbul, David Naves, which was moderated by the actor Alper Baytekin. In the first session, ArtsMap’s project partners, InogarArt Co-Founder/actor Mert Fırat and the Dutch Consulate General in Istanbul, Chief Cultural Advisor İpek Sür van Dijk was interviewed. Mert Fırat and İpek Sür van Dijk stated that their motivation for initiating ArtsMap was to develop an organic structure that would enable dialogue, capacity building and networking, which are common needs of the arts and culture industry. In the conversation, the importance of sustainable dialogues was emphasized through the example of ArtsMap.
On the second day, performing arts professionals from the Netherlands and Turkey came together with experts in the field to propose new solutions for creating a circular economy strategy within the scope of ArtsMap’s goals to create sustainable stages. Within the framework of the question “How can we create sustainable stage strategies for the future of performing arts?”, group studies were carried out using co-design and design thinking methods. At the end of this design process, the groups presented their solutions to the problems they identified.
On the third and last day of the event, a hybrid “Speed Dating” event was held in cooperation with Dutch Culture, Dutch Performing Arts and Prince Claus Fund. With the speed dating method, the ArtsMap community has developed new connections and collaborations online with performing arts professionals from the Netherlands and Turkey.