Istanbul Foundation For Culture And Arts

Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) is a non-profit cultural institution. Since 1973, the Foundation continues its efforts to enrich Istanbul’s cultural and artistic life. İKSV regularly organises the Istanbul Festivals of Music, Film, Theatre and Jazz, the Istanbul Biennial, Leyla Gencer Voice Competition, autumn film week Filmekimi and realises one-off events throughout the year. The Foundation hosts cultural and artistic events from various disciplines at its performance venue Salon İKSV, located at the Nejat Eczacıbaşı Building, and offers creative events programme for children and youngsters at İKSV Alt Kat.

İKSV organises the Türkiye Pavilion at the International Art and Architecture Exhibitions of la Biennale di Venezia, conducts studies and drafts reports with the aim of contributing to cultural policy development, and supports artistic and cultural production through presenting awards at its festivals, commissioning works, taking part in international and local co-productions and coordinating an artist residency programme at Cité Internationale des Arts in France, as well as the annual Aydın Gün Encouragement, Talât Sait Halman Translation, and Gülriz Sururi-Engin Cezzar Theatre Encouragement Awards.

İKSV is a member of the General Assembly of the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO, since 2018.