EK BİÇ YE İÇ was started by local activists in collaboration with the UK-based artist collective Something & Son as a community building project. The goal/dream has always been to come together, experiment and learn together, and put those learnings into action together to build a better life in the city.
With this purpose, we organize talks and workshops, participate in festivals, run a volunteering program, host a community library, and support art projects on a non-commercial basis. Besides providing funding for these not-for-profit projects, all our commercial activities are also intended for nurturing and growing our community.
Building urban farms and growing fantastic things in the middle of the city excites us greatly. And we find preparing food with the best ingredients very satisfying. But sharing our know-how is maybe the part we take most seriously as, we know, that is the way we can achieve our bigger goals.
We have created academic courses and corporate programs that provide the participants a fresh perspective on how to create a positive impact on the environment in their chosen profession or in their free time. We also offer workshops for individuals who want to learn about specific topics and gain hand-on training on related techniques. And we have workshops for kids, as well, to inspire them to care about making the city a better place to grow up.
We get much of our inspiration from artists when trying new ways of doing things. For this reason (and also with the ambition of sharing some of that inspiration with our visitors), we always like hosting art in our spaces.
We find that encountering intellectually stimulating contemporary art outside the white box is a pleasant surprise. So, creating those moments of wonder is part of our mission as those make life in the city richer, more fulfilling, and hence, more enjoyable…