Nesin art village, Turkey | Işın Önol | TEDxYouth@Maastricht

"It is not only the students who are pressed by the education system, the teachers too." says Isin Onol, a Turkish curator, who has taken the role of promising art education amongst youth. Inspired by Nesin she states that conviviality is not always our enemy. Iain is currently involved in what she names an utopian project with a purpose of creating an art village. Her aim is to offer art summer courses to students in order to promote abstract thinking, which is rooted out in the rigorous school system. She tells a story of the struggles of a non-government funded organisation yet remain positive that her vision will become true.

Işın Önol is based in Vienna since 2009 but also worked abroad for the past 6 years. Before that, she supervised the Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art as its director and curator in Istanbul for three years. She is an enthusiast producer of exhibition projects, talks, other art-related events as well as being an academician working in the field of contemporary art and cultural studies. She is the founder and program coordinator of Nesin Art Village, Sirince, Turkey.Nesin Art Village is a new program that was launched in 2015 by the alternative education initiative developed at Nesin Mathematics Village (NMV). NAV aims to maintain an approach that focuses on criticality and independent production processes. It offers a learning environment for young people from around Turkey, through workshops and seminars to be carried out by artists, academicians, writers and curators. Işın will share her experiences and plans about the Nesin Art Village as an alternative art education program.