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| Today, peace is the most immediate need for humanity. It should be known that even a small part of huge expenses allocated for the so-called purpose of “DEFENSE” could simply solve such worldwide problems as hunger, health care and education. The road leads to peace is through a just world, and nobody – even the wealthiest person – could ever imagine peace without justice. Music might be the best way to express our dreams about peace, justice and freedom, and the best way to spread them to crowds. Music has no limits and it can make miracles. It builds non-political bridges between cultures, religions and people, and those bridges lead to peace. The name of our project is Music for Peace because we believe in the necessity of peace and the power of music. |
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Purpose
The purpose of Music for Peace is to provide as many children as possible with the opportunity of having music education without remuneration, and to make people hear the sound of peace. The goals of MFP completely overlap with the articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child stating “the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life shall be respected and promoted and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity shall be encouraged” and “the education of the child shall be directed to the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin.”
Target audience of MFP is children from low-income families who could not have the opportunity to get music education. MFP accommodates a convenient education atmosphere with essential musical instruments, and recruits teachers for music classes. The project aims at contributing to create a social awareness with this participatory model of education.
Until today, 250 children have taken basic music education. We aim to increase the number of children who take regular music classes in three schools and centers to 200 in the academic year 2009-2010. MFP, with its own resources, works for delivering music education to a maximum number of children. MFP is ready to share its experiences with different people, societies and institutions to spread music education to the whole country. |
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Founder
Architect Mehmet Selim Baki is the sponsor of the project. He, personally finances all education and personnel expenses, instruments, regular nutrition expenses, recreation activities like theatre, travels, picnics etc., concert organizations of Music for Peace, construction of the ateliers and headquarters, along with general expenses at schools.
Apart from financing the whole project, Mehmet Selim Baki is present and together with the children in ateliers at all times. For providing sustainability of the project he will assign a considerable part of his assets to the foundation which is now in formation stage. He will also take financial measures; thus future generations can handover the project. |
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Project Neighborhood
Music for Peace first started their studies in Edirnekapı, a district surrounded by the Byzantium walls. Topkapı and Edirnekapı are the ceremony gates of The Byzantium and the Ottoman Empires. Edirnekapı used to be the gate where foreign ambassadors were welcomed to the capital city, İstanbul. The area surrounded by the walls could be referred as a religion and culture mosaic with the examples of Genoa and Byzantium architecture, sepulchers, cemeteries, mosques, churches, synagogues and jerry-built shanty towns leaning against the Byzantium walls. Unfortunately today the resident community is living upon that historical and cultural inheritance in poverty and without having access to urban benefaction. Endeavors for urban transformation are considered disrespectful to historical and cultural structure aiming to break people’s ties with their roots.
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Working Units:
Music for Peace started to work in Ulubatlı Hasan Elementary School, located in Edirnekapı, İstanbul in the academic year 2006-2007. First lessons were being held in the empty classrooms but then the unused coal shed was transformed to a music studio including a solfegé room, five studies and a multipurpose room. Studies are being held in this music studio at the moment. Furthermore, one of the two unused spaces in Ulubatlı Hasan Elementary School was converted to a kitchen in which daily meals are cooked for children, and the other one was converted to an accordion hospital for the repair and maintenance of the instruments. Studies started in the academic year 2007-2008 at Alparslan Vocational (Trade) School is being held in multi-purpose classrooms basically with flutes.
MFP music classes in Muallim Naci Elementary School were started in the academic year 2008-2009, and a solfegé room, six studies and a multi-purpose room were built. When furnishing the ateliers it was aimed to build a free atmosphere in which children feel themselves happy and creative. Colorful doors and furniture, and healthy hardwood flooring were used. We also paid very much attention to air conditioning since it is a significant part of the children’s health care.
MFP studios also welcome children who do not have the opportunity to go to schools. Those children also eat, play and make music with other children. Studios and ateliers at schools make possible to connect with potential children and to establish relations with families and the neighbor community, thus those relations support the project’s principle of creating a mass movement.
New buildings of MFP have a number of functions apart from being headquarter of the foundation: Assuring institutionalization and sustainability of MFP, making both cooperative and autonomous studies possible, providing children with the opportunity of having further music education, giving concerts to the resident community and making orchestral performances when they graduate from schools. In collaboration with Public Education Centers, we also aim to provide children with instructor certificates issued by the Ministry of Education. Therefore, they could teach music either within MFP or other institutions. Finally, MFP buildings can also be used for various studies in other branches of art. |
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Dream partners
Music for Peace is looking for a model in which different people, institutions and organizations are in cooperation with each other. At the top of our dream partners, there are schools, students, families and neighborhood community who suffer from limited economical sources. Concerts, shows and street activities are dynamics which strengthen the interaction between us and our dream partners. Umut Çocukları Derneği, (The Children of Hope Association) with which we have shared many aims such as keeping children away from the outside risks and inoculating the idea of being not violent to children, is an organization which introduced MFP to Ulubatlı Hasan Primary School and with which we share our future aims. Yedikule Hayvan Barınağı (The Yedikule Shelter for Animals), with which we share the idea that animals have rights for living in peace just like humans do, and we cannot establish ‘another world’ that we dream without the love for nature and animals, welcomed us with all their sincerity and enabled 2500 dogs to listen to our concerts. These two organizations can be considered as the most important dream partners for us. With the support of Galatasaray University, the officers from Art and Culture Attaché of French Culture Center who visited our school in order to watch our works provided us with an opportunity to work cooperatively and to give a concert. Moreover, they are supporting our dreams by trying to find opportunities for our children to participate to the accordion fests which take place abroad and support us for converting MFP into an international platform of sharing. Cem Mansur, who is the chief of the Akbank Chamber Orchestra, contributed to the musical development of our children by watching our workshops and enabling our children to participate to the rehearsals of the Akbank Chamber Orchestra.
Yıldız Technical University provided us with the opportunity of organizing a concert in its auditorium with 400 guests. IBB (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality) City Theatres organized a Children Fest and provided us with the opportunity of sharing our works with the other children in the Kadıköy Square and Ümraniye Stage of City Theatres. In the Talimhane Theatre concert which was held as a part of Perafest organized by the journalist Vecdi Sayar who is interested in our works, our children had wonderful time. The activities called as our Friday meetings increase the number of people with whom we are in cooperation and provide us to make use of their personal experiences. The children find opportunity to learn about different fields with our workshops on topics such as drama, improvisations, dance and rhythm. Açık Radio is one of the institutions which support us from the beginning of the process. We realize that the cooperation becomes more powerful day by day and foundations of MFP get strengthened. |
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Contributions
Music for Peace is in its fourth year. One of the most important indicators that shows the works of MFP are useful is the requests of the principals of the other schools who want similar music studies at their institutions. The positive effects of music and the life style offered by MFP are observed on children, their families and other people who are in cooperation with MFP.
The basic aim of MFP is to create a consciousness for the idea that every child has their own right for participating to the life of art without any cultural, ethnic or religious limitations. In line with this aim, every child has right for attending to musical workshops and sharing this life style.
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| Children can attend to the activities without considered as talented for music or not. Our aim is not to raise virtuosos but to offer an alternative life style for children and the neighborhood community by taking artistic activities into the streets and using its transformative power. Children with special talent are supported individually. High School section of ITU (Istanbul Technical University) Conservatory supports MFP in that children can attend to the preparation courses for the conservatory. “I think every child can learn how to use a musical instrument and perform music.” Flamur Muço. Moreover, MFP creates a micro-economy in itself. The parents of the students are employed when their service is needed. Furthermore, students who have gained enough experience are employed as assistants in MFP. Today’s student-assistants who are supported with scholarships for helping the new students will be the teachers if they are willing to pursue their musical education. Thus, we will create our own teaching staff that will not make any concessions from our principles, a fact which speaks for the sustainability of our project. That the nutrition needs of the children are met by the project provide a lot to the parents given that they are under severe economical conditions. The cook that we employed provides food for our musical family in a daily basis. Broken or damaged instruments are fixed in the accordion hospital that we established and in this way children know their instruments better and learn how to fix them in a master-apprentice relationship. This is considered as a work which can easily be turned into a new vocational branch. |
Sustainability
Music for Peace became hope for the children and their parents with a little light it shed. For this reason, sustainability is one of the principles of MFP. Attending children know that the education in the workshops will continue everyday. All the activities are born on the basis of a need. Our aim is not to create unused spaces, but to create environment for actual needs. Two foundation buildings are a result of this need. It is specifically aimed that these buildings will be close to the schools and houses of the children. The foundation is at the process of formation and aims at providing sustainability.
One of the handicaps that MFP is faced with related to sustainability is the scarcity of teachers and this is overcome by the notion of student-assistant. Students who reach to certain levels are supported by scholarships and are raised as future teachers. Moreover, these students are emotionally and financially supported for getting education in conservatories. If they are willing, these students will be provided with an opportunity of working for the foundation.
Furthermore, people who are to be employed are chosen from the parents who live in the neighborhood and know their neighbors. Thus, these people take a significant role in solving the problems, and strengthen the foundations of MFP.
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Creativity and Innovation
We care more about being pragmatic than being creative in the activities of MFP. We do not think that our works are creative with respect to the idea behind them. However, it is innovative that the ideas are pragmatically actualized, despite they are not creative. For people and with people, we want to annunciate the voice of peace by combining the power of music with that of people. For us, peace does not only mean the ‘condition of without war’, but the dream which consists of a peaceful and happy society which is able to meet its basic needs. We want to create a consciousness in order to create a country, in which the music is not under the domination and the use of a certain society, but is able to be reached and shared by everyone. As John Lennon says, we IMAGINE… |
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