The SSM International Advisory Board, composed of directors of the worlds most important museums, meets at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum

The International Advisory Board of the S.U. Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM), composed of directors and academicians from the world’s most respected museums, gathered for their 2009 meeting in Istanbul, seven years after the museum’s foundation in 2002. At the annual International Advisory Board meeting, long-term projects to be conducted in accordance with the museum’s vision and mission, museum educational programs and projects involving international cooperation were among the issues discussed.

The members present at the SSM International Advisory Board meeting, who are active in world museology at the highest levels, were New York Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) Director Dr. Glenn Lowry, St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum Director Prof. Dr. Mikhail Piotrovsky, the London Royal Academy’s curator of exhibitions for 30 years, Sir Norman Rosenthal, Berlin Museum of Islamic Arts Director and Berlin University faculty member Prof. Dr. Claus-Peter Haase, Paris Guimet Museum Director Prof. Dr. Jean François Jarriage and Princeton University faculty member Prof. Dr. Oleg Grabar.

In the meeting held at S.U. Sakıp Sabancı Museum, the exhibitions and activities held at the SSM during the 2008-2009 season were analyzed. As the Members of the International Advisory Board shared their experience with respect to museum education programs and the foundation and continuation of international cooperative projects, particular emphasis was placed on discussions of the situation and projects of the Istanbul Sakıp Sabancı Museum during the year 2010, when Istanbul has been designated the European Cultural Capital. At the meeting chaired by Sabancı University Board of Trustees Governor Güler Sabancı, participants included members of the Sabancı University Board of Trustees, S.U. Assistant Rector, S.U. Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and S.U. Secretary General and faculty members as well as members of the SSM Board of Directors, SSM Director Dr. Nazan Ölçer and SSM Secretary General Tanju Ula.