CultureIst’s mission is to provide a sustainable platform to support the development of arts and culture in Turkey, by creating a community of supporters in the United States.
In 2018, a group of US-based friends created CultureIst as a platform to build a community in the United States to support the contemporary arts and cultural landscape in Turkey.
Our non-profit aims to contribute to the development and the sustainability of arts and cultural platforms in Turkey. We support platforms that foster and express the depth and vibrancy of Turkey’s past and present. CultureIst collaborates solely with existing cultural and arts organizations in Turkey, by providing financing to undertake projects in line with its mission.
CultureIst is a registered non-profit in the United States with a 501(c)(3) status.
By becoming a friend of CultureIst, you will provide valuable support to the development of arts and culture in Turkey, as well as becoming part of our community of friends in New York. CultureIst’s community events include visits to collectors’ homes, artist studios, curated tours, and our annual dinner, as well as, VIP access to important cultural events in Turkey that the non-profit supports.
More information can be requested from: friends@cultureist.foundation
1 Rivington Street, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10002
Board
Igno van Waesberghe
Chairman
Igno has lived in Asia and Europe, and spent the last few years living between Istanbul, London and New York. He is a partner at Aquiline Capital Partners, a private equity fund, and prior to that had a career in investment banking. He holds an LLM in Law from Erasmus University Rotterdam and completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Selen Sarioğlu Süloş
Secretary
Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Selen began her studies at Robert College High School. She then went to Brown University and graduated from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Selen started her career in Finance at Goldman Sachs in New York and then moved to London to work at HSBC’s EMEA trading desk. Upon returning to Turkey, she joined the family business in Real Estate. Over the years, Selen became a young collector, who developed a close relationship with galleries and young artists while traveling extensively in a way that eventually art became an essential part of her life. It was during her time in Istanbul that Art Basel approached Selen for the regional representative position, which she carried out for five years until the end of 2018. Currently, Selen is studying to get her master’s degree from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York.
Pırıl Kocaoglu van Waesberghe
Treasurer
Pırıl was born in Istanbul where she studied at Uskudar American Academy. She went on to study in Warwick University in the UK and earned her MBA in London Business School in 2011. She started her career in Goldman Sachs in 2004 and went on to work in equity derivatives group in J.P. Morgan London until 2017. She has been passionate about art from an early age and this has led to Pırıl and her husband Igno to work on a platform to raise international funding for art in Turkey. Pırıl and Igno are supporters of the Istanbul Biennale.
Koray Duman
Member
Koray Duman is originally from Turkey where he earned a BArch from Middle Eastern Technical University. Koray furthered his studies at UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design with a Master’s degree in Architecture. He previously worked as the lead architect on several west coast museum projects. In 2012, Koray established Büro Koray Duman Architecture, a research-driven architecture and design studio based in New York Ctiy, focusing on art related spaces and institutional projects.