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...yansitan onemli faktorlerdir. Bu makalede Kibris Turk toplumunun cagdaslasma doneminde dini egitimden laik egitime gecisindeki evreler yaninda kadin egtitimcilerin de bu surec icindeki katkdarl ele alindi.
Kibrisli kadinlar toplumda esit haklarini ancak 20. yuzydda Ingiliz koloni doneminin sonlarina dogru almaya baslar. Ancak bu hareket irdelendiginde gercekte Ingiliz yonetiminin adaya tanitmis oldugu bati medeniyetinden cok Turkiye'deki 1923 yilindan sonraki gelismelerin Kibris Turk toplumu tarafindan yakindan izlenip uygulanmasi sonucunda gerceklesir. Kibris'ta kiz cocuklari ilk kez 19. yuzyil sonunda ilkokul egitimi, 20. yuzyilin baslarinda ise orta egitim yapma olanagini kazanir. Bati tarzinda sanat egitimi ise 1925'te baslamissa da bu 1940'lardan sonra hlz kazanir. Ilk kiz ortaokulu Viktorya Kiz Okulu'nun 1952'de lise kisminin da acilmasi sonucu yuksek egitime gitme olanagi kazanilmis ve Turkiye Hukumeti'nin sagladigi burslar sayesinde ilk yuksek sanat egitimli mezunlar da 1955'lerden sonra adaya donmeye baslar. Bu tarihlere karsin bugun Kuzey Kibris'ta yasayan Turkler arasinda yuksek egitimli kadin orani bir cok Ortadogu ulkesine gore oldukca yuksektir. Sanat egitimi yapmis ogretmenlerin 1965 yilindan sonra artan sayilarl sonucu bu alandaki egitimdeki katkilari artarken toplumun sanat ve kultur ortaminda da etkin olurlar. Seksen yil gibi bir surec icinde dini egitimden cagdas ve laik bir egitime gecisle yuzyillarca suren cehalet kapatilir. Bu surec icinde cagdas sanatin da ogretilmesi ve gelismesinde kadin sanat egitimcilerinin onemli katkilari erkek egitimcilerle hemen hemen ayni olcude olur.
Bu nedenle de bu calismada her ne kadar kadin resim-elisi ogretmenleri ile ilgili bir sunus amaclanmissa da sanat egitimine hizmet vermis ilkler de cinsiyet ayrimi gozetmeksizin genel egitim sisteminin tarihi gelisimi icinde verilmeye calisildi.
Bu baglamda sunulan calismada Kibris Turk toplumunda egitim alanindaki gelismeleri ve bunlarin icinde sanat egitimi ile kadin ogretmenlerin cagdas sanatin dolayisi ile de cagdas kulturun gelisimindeki rolleri irdelenmeye calisildi.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Kibrisli kadinlar, Kibrisli sanatcilar, Kibris Turk Sanati, kadin ogretmenler, sanat egitimi.
Abstract
The state of education and art is one of the criteria to evaluate the level of cultural standard of a country. The role of women in all professions also reflects the civilisation level of countries. This paper discusses the stages of evolution from a religious to secular character education and the part of art education and women teachers in these progresses.
Turkish Cypriot woman managed to gain equalily with man in the 20th century during the late years of the Colonial period, particularly due to the close follow-up of the cultural improvements implemented in Turkey with the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Although primary school education started at the end of the 19th century and secondary education during the first decade of the 20th century, catching up with the Western standards was achieved within a short time in many cases, in particular, in the plastic arts and legal rights for women. Reorganisation of the secondary education into secondary and high school levels, in the early years of the 1950, enabled graduates to attend universities. Female students following an art education began in the 1950s, and increased predominantly after 1965, with the scholarships provided by Turkish Repubfic. Nevertheless, the neglect of the past centuries was recovered within a century and the level of education of Turkish Cypriot women at present has risen to rather high standards as compared with many Mediterranean countries. Women art teachers played an important part in introducing modern art to society and encouraged talented students in art education both in the past and present. In this regard, this paper will review the development from religious to secular education and the role of both art education and women teachers in Turkish Cypriot schools regarding the modernization of Turkish Cypriot society.
Key Words: Art, education, art teachers, Cypriot women, Turkish Cypriot art, women teachers.
Introduction
The level of education and art is an important measure for determining the state of modernity of a country. It is a known fact that in the evolution of art, women had always played an important role although in the past they usually remained anonymous in their efforts. However, they always continued to contribute to their environment with their needles, hooks, weaving loom or basket making, and also instructing their daughters in these arts as the products of their silent, patient characters. Their creativity and talent changed with the rise of the quality of the education which resulted with no difference between artistic creativity of women and men in general.
The Turkish Cypriot art and literature managed to rise up to the level of the Western art trends during the twentieth century in parallel to the developments in education. It is believed that the efforts to attain modernity in education, is now worth to be recorded at the beginning of a new millennium. To understand this development and also the role of women in this case, it is necessary to research the outputs of a century, particularly the conditions and events that initiated the first impulses for the evolution of the contemporary art education in the Turkish Cypriot society.
The struggle of the Turkish Cypriot woman to achieve an equal position with man started in the 20th century during the British Colonial period. Although, at first glance, it could be considered that, this was the result of the Western Civilization as introduced to the island through British Rule, it was in fact the result of a close follow up of the cultural improvements implemented in Turkey with the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923 as well as the rights gained in the modern Western countries.
As a result of the reforms in education and certain aspects of culture, Turkish Cypriot women like their Turkish and European counterparts are celebrating achievements gained in a revolution nearly eight decades old and do not hide behind doors or veils as anonymous silent weavers or embroiderers anymore. They almost have an equal share in the cultural life of the society as either creators or spectators. Therefore, the theme of this paper focuses upon the position of women teachers who are responsible for the evolution of the modern art and culture in the Turkish Cypriot society and the formation of modern life. This was achieved by overcoming gender differences, particularly in education and the cultural environment, whereby women developed art and other cultural activities due to the efforts of art education. This was during the earliest period of cultural reforms that took place during the years 1900 to 1975, which was in fact a preparatory stage. It became apparent that although the achievements of this era seemed to be rather slow, in reality it impregnated to a rather successful era in the last quarter of the 20th century.
It is clear that in order to be able to write history of the Turkish women artists, it is necessary to understand the level of education of the whole society without accounting for gender differences. Therefore the role of women art teachers as educators will be discussed in this paper in comparison with the case of the male teachers and education while another paper to be published will be dedicated to the women artists and the historical perspective of art occasions in which women artists participated.
Sources for the Study of Turkish Cypriot Girls' Art Education
Although the 20th century is the most documented era of Cyprus history for the study of woman theme, documents are scanty as it is the common fate of many societies. It is also well known that, entire documents about well-known women or their achievements had been written by men (Ehrenber, 1989, p.10). For this reason, it is not possible to find the biography of any woman recorded in the history books or other documents of those years. However, this is almost the same for male companions. Studies on art history of Cyprus only dealt with the monuments or art objects while the efforts and success of masters, artists, instructors or teachers who are responsible for the creation of monuments or artifacts like pottery, embroidery or textiles usually remained anonymous. Although the situation is improving due to new attempts towards writing a history of women in Cyprus civilizations (See Pyrgos, 1993; Yfldlz, 2000), it could be said that there is presently little material published about the women art teachers (See Olgun (ed.), 1988; Yildiz, 2000; Yildiz, 2001 ; Yildiz, 2002). However, this is similar for male artists and teachers. The information for this paper was collected mainly from newspapers, socio-political texts emphasizing Cyprus problem, official reports on education matters and memoirs and documents provided by some woman artists.
Western Art in Cyprus and its Effects in the Evolution of Turkish Art Education
A research of the past cultural history of Cyprus showed initiation of a rise of interest in Western art in the 20th century. Western style of art was a rather new concept for Cyprus at the beginning of the British colonial rule although there was a rich cultural heritage on the island in western art style. It was rather strange and unfamiliar to the Turkish community as compared to the Greeks who had at least practiced icon or fresco paintings to decorate their churches.
There were many western artists who paid visits to the island particularly in 18th and 19th centuries such as William Martin Leake, E. Duthoit, Francis Arundale (Severis, 2000, 216-222, 226). Also there were a few women artists who lived on the island either temporarily or permanently in the 19th century during the first half of the 20th century who were involved with the Turkish society in their selection of topics. Lady Jane Digby Ellenborough, Gladys Pero, Marjorie Congreve and Fay Pearce (Severis, 2000, p. 107, 216-222, 226 fig. 288) were some of these. (1) Olga Rauf was another artist who settled to Cyprus and later through her marriage she lived in Turkish society until the end of her life. However, nothing is known about the extent of influence of the European artists who travelled and worked on the island for short or long periods. Elektra Megaw, who worked in Victoria Girls' School, may be considered as the most important of these to contribute to the Turkish education. Elektra Megaw, an Albanian artist who usually painted botanical watercolour paintings (Severis, 2000, pp. 241, 243, 246: fig. 319) was the wife of Peter Megaw, the archaeological officer of the Department of Antiquities in the 1930s and 1940s. She published her works in a book entitled "Wild Flowers of Cyprus" in 1974. Although according to Mevhibe Sefik, Mrs. Megaw left the island during the First World War, she took part in the Pancyprian Art Exhibition in 1947 (Severis, 2000, p. 241). (2) Mevhibe Sefik trained by Mrs.Megaw served as an art teacher for 43 years with all the knowledge and inspiration she gained through her.
The Cultural Background of the Turkish Culture and Education in Cyprus
Cyprus, the home of mainly the Greek and Turkish people, was an Ottoman province between the years 1570-1878 and then a British colony. Both societies retained their own culture during the British Colonial Rule and watched the cultural developments in Greece and Turkey. Although Cyprus is not a province of Turkey anymore, a strong Turkish patriotism was created in the Turkish society while the education was based on the new system founded in Turkey. The same situation was already started by the Greek society to improve the education based on Hellenism during the earlier years of...
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