Şeyda Çetin

Biography

Şeyda Çetin is a curator and cultural manager, specializing in Exhibition Management and Interpretation, and Audience Engagement. Currently, she is working as a Curator Meşher, where she is responsible for curatorial research and publications. She recently co-curated the exhibition Istanbul as far as the Eye Can See: Views across Five Centuries, and is working on a thematic group exhibition which will be open in September 2024.

Before taking this role in 2019, Şeyda was Gallery Curator at the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED), responsible for the content development and project management of exhibitions and parallel events. From 2013 to 2019 she was in charge of the planning and production stages of ANAMED exhibitions from concept development to interpretation, communication to collaboration and liaison.

Şeyda holds an MA in Cultural Management from Univercitat International de Catalunya and BA in Economics from the University of Marmara. During her graduate studies, she took lectures in marketing and management at Fachhochschule Münster. She has over twenty years of experience in the cultural field as a volunteer and professionally in various international cultural projects (including ConnectCP by IFACCA, community art project Papergirl, former contemporary performing arts space Garajistanbul). Şeyda worked as a communications associate developing public engagement plans for leading institutions in Istanbul, including SALT and Sakıp Sabancı Museum. She served as co-ordinator of the 2012 Annual Conference of CIMAM (International Committee of ICOM for Museums and Collections of Modern Art.) Currently her special research interests are Museology and Curatorial Studies, specifically digital interpretation methods of cultural heritage across archives, collections, galleries and museums. Her most recent projects include virtual reality adaptations of heritage sites and the application of artificial intelligence, representing information as a way to visualise archaeological and historical data.

Despite her long term professional dedication to archaeology, cultural heritage and history related projects, she keeps her enthusiasm for contemporary art by visiting various exhibitions and biennials around the globe. She is inspired by these events and challenges herself to incorporate the captivating ideas from the inspirational artworks and display methods in her own work.

At the British Museum
During her time on the International Training Programme in 2014, Şeyda was based in the Department of Greece and Rome and her partner placement was spent at Birmingham Museums Trust.

In 2014 participants were asked to prepare a project outlining an exhibition proposal based on the Asahi Shimbun Displays – a temporary exhibition in Room 3 at the British Museum. Şeyda’s exhibition project proposal was entitled William Pars: Western Turkey in Watercolor.

Şeyda’s participation on the International Training Programme was generously supported by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.

Legacy Projects
Since the ITP Summer Programme, Şeyda was part of the team that conceived, organised and delivered the workshop Talking Heavy: current practices on site conservation, documentation and presentation of ‘heavy’ heritage in the Mediterranean Basin in Istanbul. On this project, she worked with Duygu Çamurcuoglu from the British Museum’s Conservation Department, Constantinos Vasiliadis (Greece, ITP 2014), Buket Coşkuner (Turkey, ITP 2013) and Esra Satıcı (Turkey, ITP 2015).

In May 2017 Şeyda returned to the British Museum to attend the ITP+ Course, temporary exhibitions & permanent display with fellows from China, India, Iran, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey, and different ITP years.

ITP Newsletter Publications
ITP Newsletter Issue 4 (2017), Being brave, taking risks: Exhibiting a World Heritage Site symbolising peace
ITP Newsletter Issue 5 (2018), Learning and engagement: Digital tools in exhibitions to learn and engage
ITP Newsletter Issue 6 (2019), Connectivity in the 21st century: making collections accessible, Exhibition with no objects: The Curious Case of Çatalhöyük moves from Istanbul to London