Idealist School, Productive Studio

The principal teacher training school, established three years after the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, Gazi Education Institute in Ankara was assigned to bring up teachers who were equipped with all necessary skills to exercise their profession in conditions of hardship, both materially and intellectually. The Institute’s Arts-Crafts Department developed a curriculum around the concept of “work” with a pedagogical approach that emphasized “learning by doing.” A highly original variety of art education was made available, whose fundamental principles found expression in the practices of the graduates, trained as artist-teachers. Idealist School, Productive Studio focuses between the years 1932 and 1973, marking the period when the Department was opened and until when the Institute’s boarding school was rescinded. Adding a new layer to SALT’s research on the art history of Turkey, the exhibition presents a selection of archive materials and works of art along with oral narratives.