The role of city museums in maintaining city identity: Antalya City Museum example

Nowadays, the cities are the places where human relations are intensified, and changes and developments occur at an extraordinary pace. Undoubtedly, this rapid process brings along positive as well as negative results. The most important thing of these negativities is probably the deterioration in the identity values of the city. The physical, historical, social, cultural and environmental values that make up the identity of the city are worn out in this process, and are even faced with the danger of being lost. Many cities resemble each other, and the number of unidentified cities is increasing day by day. In this respect, it is of great importance to read and interpret the assets of cities with all their values. As the cities become more important problems for humanity and the focus of hope, the need for institutions to play a role in the future of cities is increasing. In this direction, the city museums, which have been spreading in our country especially for the last 20 years, have made great contributions to the maintenance of the city identity. Emphasizing the identity values of the city far more than a classic museum conception, revitalizing urban and social memory, developing urban consciousness and serving to build the future of cities on a more solid foundation, city museums are one of the most important institutions for cities and citizens. One of the most recent examples of the city museums is about to meet with the urbanities in Antalya. With the migrations in the last 50 years, the identity of Antalya has the danger of staying behind other identities with the problems experienced in maintaining the city identity values in Antalya. Antalya City Museum, which is created for this purpose, carries out studies to develop an accurate urbanity awareness with integrative and fusing training activities, and to sustain urban identity values for future generations. In our study, the role of Antalya City Museum in maintaining the city's identity is assessed through the studies and objectives it has performed. Thus, it aims to increase the awareness of citizenship by questioning themselves in particular for urbanities in Antalya, and all the urbanites in Turkey in general. Keywords: City, City Identity, City Museum, Sustainability, Urban Memory, Public's Memory, Antalya City Museum.