On January 28, 2017, YESAM hosted Ömür Tufan, the head of Topkapı Palace Kitchens, for a lecture on “Helva Culture and Helva Talks in the Ottoman Palace.” Past YESAM lectures are periodically uploaded for online viewing on the TCF Video Gallery.

Turkish cooking traditions are highlighted every month with the YESAM Recipe of the Month. This month’s featured recipe is “Egg-laced Fried Meatballs”, a classic Turkish ground meat dish.

Ali Rıza Tuna, independent scholar, delivered a lecture entitled "From Tradition to Modernity - the Art of the Anatolian Kilim" on January 25, 2017, at the Turkish Cultural Foundation Istanbul Office. In the lecture, Tuna discussed a new criteria for appreciation of Anatolian kilims, tracing parallels in color, form and abstraction between kilims and works of Western modern art, including the painting of the impressionists and abstracts.

Makam New York's program Turkish Story Time, supported by a TCF grant, continues to present weekly programs in New York City. Turkish Story Time brings children and their caregivers together to learn about Turkish culture through reading stories in Turkish, learning songs, rhymes, and riddles, introducing instruments and advancing literacy. The program is recorded the first Saturday of every month at 4:00 pm at Book Culture on Columbus in New York City and is open to the public. The recordings, stories and materials are available on Makam New York’s website.

Dr. Zeynep Çelik, Professor of Architecture at New Jersey Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture and Design at (Cultural Exchange Fellow 2013) published a book entitled About Antiquities: Politics of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2016).

Agah Barış, Can Aksakal, and Hale Feriha Hendekcigil (Cultural Exchange Fellow 2014) exhibited their glass works in the group exhibition "Genç Doku" at the Glasst, Istanbul from December 24, 2016 to January 6, 2017.