The TCF US and Istanbul offices launched the 2011-2012 Lecture Series in Turkish Culture and Art this month. The TCF Istanbul office highlighted the UNESCO Evliya Celebi Year and the 400th anniversary of the birth of Evliya Celebi with two lectures. Seyit Ali Kahraman lectured on "Evliya Celebi and the Book of Travels" on October 5 and Dr.Nurhan Atasoy gave a lecture on "The Path of Evliya Celebi and Matrakci Nasuh" on October 6 at TCF Istanbul. The TCF Istanbul Lectures can be viewed here online.

Dr. Nurhan Atasoy, Senior Scholar in Residence at TCF, will also be the featured speaker of the TCF Lecture Series in the United States in October. She will lecture on "Ottoman Imperial Tents", at the New England Rug Society in Boston on October 21; on "Costumes of the Ottoman Sultans", at the Chicago Oriental Rug and Textile Society on October 28; and on "Costumes of the Ottoman Sultans" at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC on October 30. For more information on the TCF Lecture Series, please visit here.

Turkish American communities across the United States are celebrating Turkish heritage and culture through Turkish festivals and Turkish National Day events, marking the founding of the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923. TCF has provided major funding to the following recent and upcoming Turkish festivals: 10th Florida Turkish Festival, Annual Turkish Cultural Festival of Seattle, Charlotte Turkish Festival,21st Annual Houston Turkish Festival, 9th Annual Washington Turkish Festival, 16th Boston Turkish Art and Culture Festival and Turkfest in Worldfest Dallas. For information on Turkish festivals in the US and around the world, visit the TCF Turkish Festival Newsletter.

TCF's Natural Dyes Research and Development Laboratory-DATU has become a major sponsor of an exhibition on Anatolian kilims, titled, The Art of the Anatolian Kilim: Highlights from the McCoy Jones Collection at the San Francisco Museums of Fine Arts. The exhibition will remain open through June 10, 2012.

A TCF grant to Crosspulse will enable Turkish participation at the 4th International Body Music Festival in San Francisco and related educational programs. KeKeCa Body Percussion Ensemble from Bosphorus University will perform at the festival and demonstrate Turkish music at several public workshops.

A second-year grant was awarded to Stanford University as part of a multi-year TCF commitment to underwrite a full-time Lecturer position in Turkish Language and Literature at the University. Offered by Burcu Karahan Richardson, also a recipient of the TCF Fellowship in Turkish Culture and Art in 2010, three Turkish language courses, three thematic courses on Turkish literature and two independent courses on advanced Turkish were presented under this program in 2010-2011.

TCF also awarded a second-year grant to the Ottoman Studies Foundation to underwrite the Intensive Ottoman and Turkish Summer School in Cunda, Turkey. Co-sponsored by Harvard and Koc University, the school attracts students from all around the world and provides instruction in reading and translating Ottoman Turkish texts in both manuscript and printed form.

24 American guests toured Turkey on the TCF Fall 2011 Cultural Tour, which took participants on a cultural journey through Istanbul, the Marmara region and Central Anatolia. TCF cultural tours have introduced 187 influential Americans from different walks of life to Turkey on tours that highlight the culture, cuisine, history, art, architecture and natural beauty of Turkey. For photos and comments about the TCF cultural tours, please visit here.

The TCF Istanbul office hosted a group of congressional staffers sponsored on a Turkey trip by the Turkish Coalition of America. The group received a briefing on by Dr. Nurhan Atasoy, Senior Scholar in Residence at TCF, who presented a lecture on "Art in the Time of Suleyman the Magnificent."