My front, my back, my right, my left is a museum!
On the way to Union of European Children and Toy Museums, the first step is being taken in Turkey.
The delegates of children and toy museums of France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal are
participating to the meeting that the Istanbul Toy Museum is going to welcome. The directors of Europe
Museum Forum (EMF) and Europe Museums Academy (EMA) will accompany to the meeting.
The main topic of the events –that will be executed under the auspices of Culture and Tourism
Ministry- is determined as ‘Rag-Doll’ to emphasize the importance of the value that is reflected to a
child’s world by our country’s textile culture. Kübey Hatun who protects expecting women and children
and gives them life, is going to be introduced as the symbol of TOYCO meeting which is sponsored by
Employers’ Union of Turkish Textile Industry.
The ‘Rag-Dolls’ of Kübey Hatun –that were prepared by Fatma Tuncer -are going to be given as gifts to
the participant museums.
The representatives of the museums, who are going to participate to the meetings, will visit Antalya
Toy Museum after participating to the events of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality in Child Art
Museum and the preparatory works of toy museum that is being executed. A great meeting is going to
be held in Caddebostan Culture Center, on 19-20 November, in Istanbul, the third city of TOYCO
meetings. Among them there are museum representatives including Nurnberg Toy Museum, Paris Toy
and Doll Museum, Brussels Toy Museum, Lisbon Toy Museum are going to share their stories,
experiences and events on the 2-day meeting under the guidance of Sunay Akın. Academicians and
teachers are going to show great interest in the meetings which will be open to the public.
An exhibition is going to be held with the toys that describe children and toy’s culture which the
countries will bring to the historical meeting. The event will be sponsored by Turkish Textile Employers’
Association and will also supported by Faber- Castell, Tadım Nutrition, Kia, Deniz Bank , İş Bank Culture
Publications, Kadiköy Municipality and Istanbul Bilgi University.
For TOYCO meeting Sunay Akın said : ‘the first pieces of museology game which I was playing when I
was a child (as a son of a tailor) were stuffs like thimble I took from my father’s shop, hasps, and some
country maps I cut from scraps of cloth. Years have passed and the toy museum I owned will be the first
to assemble the children and toy museums in Europe. When I told about my dream to Halit Narin during
his visit to the museum, he said that they were on our side as textile suppliers and supported this great
meeting. How interesting is that the country maps that I cut from scraps of cloth, are being assembled
by textile suppliers of Turkey. I would like to thank all the precious firms, especially to the Employers’
Union of Turkish Textile Industry for contributing. First, we will go to Gaziantep with elite guests who
came to our country. This time, successful events executed by the museum and preparation studies of
the museum will be announced throughout the world, where the battle news are published and then
Zeugma Museum will be visited. Istanbul Toy Museum is going to be visited after the visit to Antalya Toy
Museum and I am sure that guests of our countries will appreciate when they see our country’s
achievements about children and toy museums in such a short period of time. Everything is for
protecting our children’s plays and their dreams. Because, the way to the future of a country passes
from those children’s plays of that country.