Türk Halk Müziği Sözlüğü (Turkish Folk Music Dictionary), the first of its kind in Turkish folk music studies, was published with support by a multi-year TCF research grant. The research was undertaken by Dr. Melih Duygulu, a leading musicologist and Chair of the Ethnomusicology Department at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul, who also authored the book. The publication brings together over 3,000 Turkish folk music terms collected by Dr. Duygulu and his team in 68 provinces, 210 counties, and 1000 villages all across Turkey and through interviews with nearly 2,000 sources. The Turkish Folk Music Dictionary is the latest of a series of projects in the area of Turkish music studies brought to life by TCF in collaboration with Dr. Duygulu. They include the TCF Turkish Music Portal, and the Turkish Music Dictionary, the broadest English-Turkish dictionary on musical terms, made available online on the TCF portals. The publication may be ordered here.

The 2015 season of the TCF-WACA Spotlight on Turkey program was launched this month. Over the course of the next three months, 12 WACA councils selected as partners for this year's program will each organize a Teacher Workshop on Turkey, supported through a TCF grant. Teachers interested in participating in the two Teacher Study Tours this summer are required to participate in a workshop to become eligible to apply for the tours. TCF will organize two Teacher Study Tours for a total of 48 American teachers in the summer of 2015. The tour dates are June 27-July 11 and July 21-August 4. While priority is given to teachers residing in the council areas, councils may allow out of area teachers to participate in their programs and apply for the tour. For more information, contact the councils directly or send an e-mail to washington@turkishculture.org. Please visit the TCF Education Portal to learn more about the Spotlight on Turkey program and to access lesson plans and other educational resources on Turkey.

Meanwhile, the last event of the 2014 Spotlight on Turkey program was organized by the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C. on January 29, and featured a lecture by Dr.Walter Denny, a leading expert on Ottoman textiles. The lecture titled "The Oriental Carpet: Foreign Gifts and Foreign Affairs took place at the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery of Art.

TCF has become an institutional partner in the UNESCO Chair on Management and Promotion of World Heritage Sites: New Media and Community Involvement at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. The TCF contribution to the work of the UNESCO Chair will be in the form of supporting international educational exchanges and research. The Chair was established at a ceremony on January 7 at Kadir Has University, attended by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. It is the first UNESCO Chair in cultural heritage in Turkey and will work on promoting and enhancing community involvement in World Heritage sites in Turkey through new media applications. Community and youth education will be another important component of the Chair's work. The technology partner of the Chair is Bilkom, and youth education programs will be undertaken by World Heritage Travelers Association.

On January 29th, YESAM hosted Ayfer Yavi, classical archeologist and an expert on open markets and bazaars of Turkey for a seminar on "İstanbul Markets Throughout History."

In February, YESAM will host wine expert and sommelier, Murat Yankı, for a seminar on "History of Wine in Turkey" which will be presented in English. Past YESAM lectures are periodically uploaded for online viewing on the TCF Video Gallery.

Meanwhile, Turkish cooking traditions are highlighted every month with the YESAM Recipe of the Month, which features an Ottoman recipe for Stuffed Quince for January.

This month, the TCF Istanbul office hosted a lecture by Banu Özden, Project Executive at the TCF Culinary Arts Center-YESAM. Her talk "Exploring Turkey's Culinary Heritage-A Look Through the History, Traditions and Ingredients" took place on January 13. Atila Ege, founder and chairman of World Heritage Travelers, spoke on the topic of "UNESCO World Heritage and Turkey" on December 22.

All TCF Istanbul lectures are recorded and may be watched online on the TCF Video Gallery. The latest video addition is the lecture by Prof. Savaş Arslan of Bahçeşehir University who spoke at TCF on the history of Turkish cinema. For more information on upcoming TCF Lecture Series in Turkish Culture and Art, visit here.

TCF provided a grant to the Museum of Fine Art in Houston to support the 3rd Annual Turkish Film Festival. The festival will take place on March 28-29 and showcase an impressive line-up of Turkish films, led by the winner of the 2014 Cannes Palme d'Or, Kış Uykusu-Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

A TCF grant will support the organization of the 7th Annual Nazım Hikmet Poetry Festival organized by the American Turkish Association of North Carolina. TCF has underwritten this event since its inception. The Festival will be held on April 26, 2015 at the Page Walker Arts & History Center in Cary, NC and celebrate the life and poetry of Nazım Hikmet, regarded widely as the greatest Turkish contemporary poet. The festival also pays tribute to a different international poet each year.  This year's selected poet is Anna Akhmatova. A poetry competition precedes every festival. Finalists are invited to read their poetry at the Festival alongside other noted poets. Scrapbooks of past festivals' winning poems can be ordered here.

Hüseyin Eryurt (TCF Academic Fellow-2014) presented his paper "Digital PR and Online Marketing for Culture Routes" at the 5th World Trails Conference in Jeju, Korea on January 15.

Refik Anadol (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2013) will present his work at a group exhibition entitled "Waves /Dalgalar" at Blok Art Space in Istanbul from January 15 through February 28.

Dr. Utku Dervent (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2012) will exhibit his work at an exhibition entitled "Being There" at Bozlu Art Project in Istanbul from January 21 to February 21.