The State and the arts: the theatre scene in Turkey

The arts scene in Turkey has been the subject of discussions since April 2012, with the revealing of the governmental reform agenda on the state support model for the arts that includes the closure of the State Theatres and, the State Opera and Ballet. However, there has been a strong public resistance against the closure of these public arts institutions, along with criticisms on the lack of essential assessment studies, inclusive decision-making process and transparency. Within this framework, the thesis aims to investigate the ways in which the current state support model for the theatre scene in Turkey can be improved considering the contextual specificities, achievements of the current support framework, infrastructure of the theatre scene and the public opinion. Towards this end, a policy-oriented exploratory research was designed with an interdisciplinary approach. In addition to archival research, media coverage and contextual analysis, an institutional performance analysis framework was developed to assess the achievements of the State Theatres. Furthermore, the fieldwork was conducted in two parts; (i) a private / independent theatres survey was carried out with 24 theatres in Istanbul to analyse the infrastructure of the field, and (ii) a public opinion survey was conducted with a sample of 436 participants in Istanbul to examine the attitudes towards arts and culture, as well as the relation between these attitudes and the socio-economic profile. In light of the interdisciplinary analysis, the research provides a comprehensive overview of the theatre field based on evidence and provides recommendations for generating a sustainable policy agenda for the arts and culture scene in Turkey.