Cherish the Memory of the City Museum

Comments from the Technical Committee

Endowed with a rich history of many past civilizations, Eskisehir has created a Memory Museum that builds a cultural bridge from the past to the present. It combines the best of museology with modern technology. The project focuses on enabling citizens to establish and nourish ties with their culture through digital recordings of oral histories captured through interviews with scholars and experts about Eskisehir’s history and cultural heritage. The museum features arts, ethnic culture, education, sports, economics, genetic heritage and personal experiences. The museum incorporates and curates participation through competitions, library collections and child-oriented activities, and it intends to continue as a living and continuously self-renewing museum. No less than 40 percent of museum visitors in 2013 were Eskisehir citizens, showing the extent of local interest.

Background Information

The Eskisehir City Memory Museum (ECMM) was actualized as a result of a partnership agreement between Eskisehir Metropolitan Municipality and Den Haag Historisch Museum within the framework of European Community-Türkiye Intercultural Dialogue Grant Program. The Project agreement with the Central Finance and Contracting Unit (CFCU) was signed on October 27, 2011. With this agreement it was decided to establish a “City Memory Museum” within the complex of Eskisehir City Museums, which will keep city memory alive and be open for improvement.

Goals of the Initiative

The historical development and cultural history of Eskisehir is exhibited by a technological platform. There are nine different themes determined as History, Cultural History, Culture and Arts, Ethnic Culture, Education, Sports, Economy, Genetic Heritage and my Eskisehir as oral history Works.

•“Eskisehir in You” Art Competition. 13 artworks, selected from 114 artworks which applied to this competition, were exhibited in Holland for one month. 13 artists and the Project team participated in the exhibition opening in Holland and found the possibility to learn about the culture there. These 13 artworks were then chosen to be exhibited permanently in the exhibition hall of the Museum.

•“Origin and Destination” Exhibition organized in Eskisehir. 13 works by Dutch artists, who won in the competition in Holland, were exhibited in Eskisehir City Museum for 15 days. The artists participated in the exhibition opening and discovered the possibilities for learning about Turkish culture.

•The ECMM Library. The library comprises sources related to the history of Eskisehir, attracts great attention of academicians, researchers and students.

•The children playground in the Museum. It ensures that children have great time with educational tales, plays and coloring books in keeping with the theme of Eskisehir, while their parents are visiting the museum.

Outcomes and Assessments

The ECMM is designed around a relatively new concept in which elements that are specific to the city and have played a role in its development from the past to the present were recorded in a digital environment, rather than exhibiting artistic or historical objects.

This concept is a first in Eskisehir.

Visitors are able to view any subject or person on touch-screens, which include an archive of oral history studies collected under nine categories.

There are two digital books which cover Eskisehir’s history from the year 1900 until present. There is also a library which holds more than 1,300 documents on Eskisehir.

In the scope of the project, artworks which are worth exhibiting were determined through competitions open to all individuals were organized both in Eskisehir and Den Haag. These artworks were exhibited on different dates in both cities under the titles, “Eskisehir in You” and “Origin and Destination”.

The City Memory Museum has become member of ICOM, an international association on museology.

Following the realization of the project as a result of partnership between Eskisehir and Den Haag, a new museum in Eskisehir was established, which has become a cultural bridge between these both cities.

Strengths of the Initiative and Innovation

In recent years Eskisehir developed both culturally and touristic, its population reached 799,724 in the year of 2013. According to data of the Provincial Tourism Directorate, the number of domestic tourists and foreign tourists who made excursion to Eskisehir in the year of 2012 is 184,549 and 10,025 respectively. The Number of tourists who stayed more than one night is 84,229.

Eskisehir, which hosted a lot of civilizations in the history and was a continuous settlement area, is a city that has a rich culture, a strong economy and industry and accommodates a lot of communities from different cultures and ethnical origins. This ensures a vast city memory.

Eskisehir is a well-known city with regard to its modern daily life. The idea of this project is blending traditional life with modern life, which is also the current duty of active cities, especially of city museums of “Living Cities”. The ECMM, the first in Türkiye with its concept, has become a model for other cities to keep their memories alive. Moreover, through the ECMM, which is a product of intercultural dialogue Project, a partnership with Den Haag Museum is established and a cultural connection between two countries is founded by exhibition and artist exchanges.

City Memory Museums are indicators of civilizations. They are very important centers which introduce the most significant cultural, economic and civil information, which a city has accumulated throughout the years, to the people. For this reason, the need for a technological museum equipped with documents about Eskisehir comprising of visuals and narrations of persons who have knowledge of the history and events which brought Eskisehir to present day arose.

The Odunpazari region, where the museum building is located, is the oldest settlement center of Eskisehir. Following the restoration and reconstruction works by the Metropolitan Municipality, this region has gained a touristic feature. The Eskisehir City Museums Complex is located in this region where registered buildings are found. The ECMM, included in this complex, attracts dense interest of both domestic and foreign tourists.

Apart from ECMM, there are also the Eskisehir Modern Glass Arts Museum, which was established in 2007 and is a first in Turkey and The YılmazBüyükersen Wax Sculptures Museum opened in 2013 in the Eskisehir City Museums Complex. Thus, visitors are able to visit three museums the same day. As long as the Eskisehir City Museum Complex exists, the ECMM will also continue its existence.