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At the Ottoman Bank Museum: Ojects and Rituals
WHY MUSEUMS? MODERN EDUCATORS OF SOCIETY...

The Ottoman Bank Museum has added a new series to its Voyvoda Street Lectures this season. Under the general heading, "Objects and Rituals", the lectures will focus on the involvement of art in everyday life and on the interaction of culture with perceived reality. Our first speaker, Assist. Prof. Wendy Shaw joins us on Wednesday, November 24, at 6:30 p.m., to examine the socio-educational functions of museums and their interaction with society.

Museums are too often perceived as cultural institutions with unchanging and prescribed identities so that people tend to avoid museum visits or do not consider them a genuine leisure activity. In Turkey, as in many other countries, local attendance at museums is low yet museums are still among the first places tourists flock to. Wendy Shaw will address the irony lying at the root of this conception of museums and discuss the historical, universal and local dimensions of the changing and evolving functions of the institution. Shaw will also talk about the challenges facing new museum initiatives in Turkey.

After earning a B.A in Visual Arts from Scripps College, Claremont CA, Assist. Prof. Wendy Shaw obtained a master's degree and a Ph.D. in Art History from UCLA. Her research interests include the cultural history of Turkey, art history, museum studies, the history of archeology, and contemporary visual arts. Wendy Shaw is currently a faculty member of the Department of Media and Communication Systems at Bilgi University.



A full program of lectures is offered by the Ottoman Bank Museum under the general heading, Voyvoda Street Lectures. This season, a lecture is presented every Wednesday on one of 4 main themes - music and politics, objects and rituals, economic history, and Istanbul. The Making of Modern Turkey Seminars, organized by the Museum in association with Boğaziçi University, are held every third Saturday of the month.