Art valleys in Anatolia

The Baks? Museum was founded in 2005 in a village in Bayburt, one of Turkey's most distant eastern places, by an artist and academic Professor Hüsamettin Koçan. The museum, founded literally in the middle of nowhere, was a utopia come true. 

Koçan was supported by artists who donated their work to the museum and a handful of businesspersons.

When he established the Baks? Museum (Baks? is the old name of the village) in his birthplace, Bayraktar Village overlooking the Çoruh Valley, nobody was able to foresee the museum would become so successful. 

The 10-year-old Baks? Museum is truly a valley of art with its exhibition halls, contemporary art collection, its conference hall and the art conferences it hosts, its concerts, its areas facilitating meetups between local people to discuss art and creative production. 

It is more than a valley of art. The reason is that they have specific aims like protecting the local traditional culture, educating women and children and providing employment through art and creative production. 

The Baks? Museum won the "2014 European Museum Prize" from the Council of Europe Parliamentarian Assembly. Famous Catalan artist Juan Miro's "Femme aux beaux seins" sculpture is being exhibited at the museum for a year because of the prize.

While the Miro piece is being hosted, an exhibition entitled "Sculpture Road to Miro" is being held with pieces of Turkish artists exhibited outdoors all the way from the museum to the Çoruh Valley, to celebrate the museum's prize.

While the Baks? Museum celebrates its 10th year, architect Melkan Tabanl?o?lu, a partner in Istanbul's leading art gallery, will set up a "Women Employment Center" in downtown Bayburt.

Meanwhile, in the central...