Abdülmecit Arigüzel

Biography

Abdülmecit worked as a curator under the Ministry of Culture in Türkiye from 2006 to 2017, designing and coordinating exhibitions for numerous museums. Between 2006 and 2013, he served as a Museum Specialist at the Topkapı Palace Museum. After completing the ITP in 2009, Abdülmecit pursued a master’s degree in Museology in Istanbul – and in 2013, he completed his master’s degree in Graphic Design. Between 2015 and 2016, he was a PhD candidate at Ankara Gazi University. During the summer program in 2009, Abdülmecit worked as a manuscript library and museum archive specialist at the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul.

During his tenure at the Ministry of Culture, Abdülmecit was responsible for designing exhibitions for newly built or renovated museums across Türkiye. Abdülmecit worked on projects such as the Çanakkale Troy Museum, Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum, Hatay Mosaic Museum, and Gaziantep Museum of Civilizations, among others. In total, he contributed to the redesign of exhibitions for 117 museums. Daily tasks within this role included coordinating exhibition teams, managing design processes, and finding solutions for identity issues in museums.

Other projects and programs Abdülmecit has participated in include – completing his master’s thesis titled ‘Identity Issues in Museums and Exhibition Design Solutions’; and participated in a 2016 UCL project focusing on the theme of managing a cultural center for people from diverse backgrounds in London.

Since 2017, Abdülmecit has been based in Germany,

At the British Museum
During his time on the International Training Programme in 2009, Abdülmecit was based in the Department of Greece and Rome and his partner placement was spent at Glasgow Museums.

In 2009 an element of the programme was a morning of presentations, in which groups of participants presented a 10-minute illustrated talk, prompted by the task to consider a new display of the fellows cultures at the British Museum.  Abdülmecit’s exhibition project proposal, with colleague Fatma Dogruer (Türkiye), was entitled The Nereid Monument – A New Display.