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Dilek Karaaziz Şener

Hacettepe Art Museum

Vice Director

Country: Turkey

ITP Year: 2018

Biography

Dilek received her BA, MA and PhD from Ankara University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Archaeology and Art History. She began working in the cultural sector in 2010 as an assistant curator for contemporary art exhibition Little Black Fish and in 2015 took on the role of curator, working on the exhibition, How Should a War Be Remembered? In the same year, she was appointed by the Legislative Assembly of Northern Cyprus to the management of Dr. Fazil Küçük Museum project, which was completed in 2016. In 2017, in Ankara at CerModern, Dilek assumed the curatorship of Hacettepe Art Museum The New Collection – Tomorrow is Built from This Day exhibition and In Void exhibition at Çankaya Municipality Contemporary Arts Centre.

Dilek has working on many projects. She is a member of International Association of Art Critics Turkey (AICA-TR) and is writing for Rh, Yenidüzen (Cyprus), and Istanbul Art News magazines. As an art writer she also publishes books, and articles for various magazines about the theories and practices in contemporary art, art history and museology.

She teaches courses, as a senior lecturer and researcher, in Art History, Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art, Contemporary Art, and Mythology at Hacettepe University. At the same university Dilek also works as a part-time instructor for art management, and art history in the Fine Art Faculty.

Dilek is the vice director of Hacettepe Art Museum, a museum which she has been the assistant manager of since 2005. Dilek organises conceptual exhibitions in different spaces using the museum’s collections. She works with artists on these projects to enrich the museum collection. Dilek looks after the inventory, storage, presentation of the museum and museum education.

At the British Museum
During her time on the International Training Programme, Dilek was based in the Greece and Rome Department, and spent her partner placement at Manchester Museum,  Manchester Art Gallery and Whitworth Art Gallery..

In 2018 participants were asked to plan and propose a temporary exhibition, drawing on their existing museum experience and the skills learnt during the programme. Dilek worked with Mariana Sainz (Mexico) on her Object in focus project, Ceremonial Journey: How a tradition came from Egypt to Sudan.

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