Museum İzmir Culture and Arts Factory

The Alsancak Tekel Factory, whose history dates back to the end of the 19th century, after restoration, renovation and reconstruction works in accordance with its original form, has transformed into a cultural and artistic center of the new generation that will shape the cultural and artistic life of İzmir.

The unused buildings of the factory, which is one of the most important industrial heritages of the city with its 140-year history, were re-functionalized and brought into the future. The historic factory opened its doors to culture and art, this time under the name “İzmir Culture and Arts Factory”.

With its museums remodeled according to the concept of modern museology, libraries that appeal to all segments of the population – from children and young people to adult readers and researchers of all ages, cultural and art workshops, and a vast landscape and recreational area suitable for outdoor activities, the İzmir Culture and Arts Factory is a candidate for the new center of attraction for the city and will continue to be a source for those who are building the world of the future while helping to preserve the city’s historical memory.

İzmir Culture and Arts Factory is one of the windows to the cultural and art world of our country and İzmir and an original and innovative cultural and art center that responds to the artistic, cultural, educational and social needs of society with its services, a place where the people of the city interact with culture, art and nature. It stands out as a pleasant meeting place for all citizens and visitors of the city.

departure of Western Anatolia, industrial activities emerged in the period from the 16th to the mid-19th century, generally due to the export of agricultural products. With the rapid increase in the volume of trade in the second half of the 19th century, there were significant developments in the industrial life of İzmir. Many large industrial plants are opened, such as a spinning mill, a coal-gas factory, a water factory and a cigarette factory.

As a result of the trade agreements that the Ottoman Empire concluded with England and France, foreign merchants subordinated to these two countries settled in İzmir from 1838. In 1881, the Düyûn-u Umûmiye (Public Debts) Administration was established to pay the foreign debts of the Empire, and all taxes collected from stamps, alcoholic beverages and tobacco were reserved for domestic and foreign debts. The Régie de Tabacs (Tobacco Regiment), created in 1884 as an enterprise of the administration, took over the tobacco monopoly and began designing three factories that same year, following the policy of establishing large factories. One of those three projects was the Alsancak Cigarette Factory.

Only two years after the establishment of the Turkish Republic, in 1925, the Tobacco Regiment was purchased from the French by the state, and all the rights and obligations of the Regiment were accordingly transferred to the state. The “Tobacco Monopoly Law (Tütün İnhisarı Kanunu)” enacted in 1930 marked the first steps of TEKEL, which had been the sole manufacturer and distributor of alcohol and tobacco products in Türkiye for many years. Alsancak Cigarette Factory, which was actively used in the early years of the Republic and whose production chart increased in the 1940s, continued its production activities as a TEKEL enterprise until 2004. The buildings on the factory premises are registered via various decisions of the Protection Authority in 1979, 1985 and 2007.

Museum İCAF – Archaeology and Ethnography

The largest building, which is the identity of İzmir Culture and Arts Factory and served as the production center in the center of the historical Alsancak Tekel Factory, was transformed into Museum İCAF – the Archaeology and Ethnography Museum after careful restoration and renovation works carried out in accordance with the original.

Archaeological artifacts are displayed on the ground and first floors of the 7,240-square-meter, two-story building, and ethnographic artifacts on the second floor. The museum, which displays gold, metal, marble, terracotta, stone and glass works from the region, as well as historical textiles and unique manuscripts, invites visitors of all ages to take a pleasant historical and cultural journey through the past centuries, with thematic exhibitions reflecting the museology understanding of the new generation.

İzmir Painting and Sculpture Museum

The İzmir Painting and Sculpture Museum, opened on September 9, 1952 by Bruno Taut as the first gallery in the building of the Ministry of Education in today’s Kültür Park, hosted its visitors in its building in Konak from 1973 to 2022. The museum, which was relocated to Kültür Park after the October 30, 2020 earthquake that shook the region, began operating on March 25, 2022, and opened its doors to art-loving visitors at the İzmir Culture and Arts Factory in April 2023.

The İzmir Painting and Sculpture Museum, which receives its visitors in the building that is the second largest building of the historic Alsancak Tekel Factory and has been restored with careful restoration and renovation works, has a very rich art historical collection. The collection presents a significant selection from the Tanzimat period to the present.

In addition to the works of important painters such as Şeker Ahmet Paşa, Halil Paşa, Mülazım Remzi, Sülayman Seyyid Bey, İbrahim Çallı, Hikmet Onat, Namık İsmail, Şevket Dağ, Zeki Kocamemi, Mahmud Cuda, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Nurullah Berk, Cemal Tollu, Abidin Elderoğlu, Nuri İyem, Fahrelnisa Zeid, Mubin Orhon, Sabri Berkel, Neşet Günal, Turan Erol, Adnan Çoker, Halil Akdeniz, Neşe Erdok and Devrim Erbil, important works of sculpture artists such as Turgut Pura, Kuzgun Acar, Zühtü Müridoğlu, Ali Hadi Bara, Ferit Özşen and Sadi Öziş, and ceramic artists such as Füreya Koral, Bingül Başarır, Mustafa Tunçalp and Mehmet Tüzüm Kızılcan are exhibited in the museum.