The impact of cultural policies on the development of Turkish theatre

Throughout the development of institutional Turkish Theatre, state funding has been itsmain provider. Today there are two main bodies which are supported by the goverment;the state theatres and the city theatres. In both cases the goverment provides stages,pays the salaries of the artists and runs the institutions.The thesis aims to figure out the problems that have been faced because of this system.As a method, books, periodials, panels and discussions about the field have beenscanned. Cultural policies and state funding systems in other countries have beenexamined. Culture?s part in the Goverment?s `Five Year Development Programmes? hasalso been analyzed. İzmit Municipality Theatre , which was established in an industrialcity, has been shown as a satisfactory model. The concept of governance has beenclaimed as a good model for these institutions. The historical roots of Turkish Theatrehave been examined in order to understand the development phase of the theatre withinthe country. The organizational structures of the state, city and private theatres havebeen researched in order to outline the state?s intervention. The role of the regionaltheatres to disseminate theatres and the problems that were faced during theestablishment of regional theatres have been investigated. The state?s role in the act ofcensorhip has been argued.In relation to the findings of this thesis, the need to build a new structure has beenconcluded. De-centralization and governance would be the key elements. The ideawithin the artist unions is to establish an autonomous body which is quite the same asthe `Art Council? in Great Britain. Rather than adaopting a foreign model, creating anew model is proposed.Key words: Theatre, cultural policies, governance, state subsidy to art institutions.