SAHA Sustainability Fund

SAHA Sustainabilty Fund

SAHA supports 12 independent art initiatives from 8 different cities!

SAHA continues its support for independent art initiatives operating across Turkey since 2014 through the SAHA Sustainability Fund. The initiatives that SAHA will support throughout 2026 with funding for various projects are Arthere (Istanbul), Fırın (Eskişehir), gri alan (Balıkesir), Hayy Açık Alan (Izmir), Keter Studio (Rize), Montag Residency (Balıkesir), Loading (Diyarbakır), metr.cube (Istanbul), Non.Sight (Istanbul), sub (Çanakkale), and Yermekân (Ankara). The 12 initiatives selected from the applications received in response to the open call in October 2025 were prioritized according to the association's mission and areas of activity and approved. SAHA is distributing a net, non-repayable grant of 2,160,000 TL (approximately 45,000 EUR) equally among these 12 initiatives by the end of the year.

Arthereistanbul

Founded in 2014 in Istanbul’s Yeldeğirmeni neighborhood, Arthereistanbul is an independent, non-profit art space created and run by displaced and local artists. The initiative provides a free and democratic environment for artistic creation, dialogue, and exchange — particularly supporting artists from the MENA region and Turkey who face displacement, censorship, or limited access to resources. Arthereistanbul’s mission is to nurture a global artist community that transcends borders, advocating democracy, equality, and social justice through art. Its space — comprising a gallery, artist studios, a sound lab, darkroom, and 3D printing facilities — hosts exhibitions, residencies, and public programs open to all, free of charge. The initiative welcomes around 20 artists every year through its residency program, and supports at least 12 artists at risk annually, in collaboration with partners such as Fanak Fund, Culture Resource, and Goethe-Institut. Its activities range from workshops on grant writing and portfolio development to exhibitions addressing migration, ecology, and discrimination — including participation in the 17th Istanbul Biennial with Footsteps – War Stories. Funded by the British Council, a international collaboration in the project ACT – Artists Connecting in Transit. Through projects like BeMobileCreateTogether (with Goethe-Institut, IKSV, and the French Institute) and ACT – Artists Connecting in Transit, Arthereistanbul builds networks of solidarity and exchange between Turkey, Europe, and the MENA region. At its core, Arthereistanbul operates on the principle of “artists supporting artists,” sustaining a vibrant, inclusive platform where creativity and collaboration foster social change.

Fırın

Founded in 2019 in Eskişehir, Fırın is an independent art platform that provides space for research-based, dialogical, and process-oriented modes of artistic production. Housed in a former bakery, the space places transformation, sharing, and continual reformation—qualities inherent in the act of making—at the core of its conceptual and physical identity. Fırın serves as a meeting and production space for independent artists and initiatives in the city. Each year, through open calls and invitations, it develops programs that support artistic practices engaging with current economic, ecological, and social issues. Through cross-disciplinary collaborations, artist residencies, workshops, exhibitions, and talks, Fırın encourages experimental approaches to artistic thinking and making, embracing an innovative, free, and process-driven understanding of art. As a long-term platform for contemporary art production outside the dominant art centers, Fırın places solidarity, collaboration, and shared learning at the heart of its practice. By fostering relationships with local artists, researchers, and communities, it strengthens processes of production, research, and dialogue within Eskişehir’s cultural ecosystem, while sustaining art’s connection to everyday life.

gri alan

gri alan is an independent contemporary art iniative founded in 2021in Ayvalık, Turkey. It focuses on queer art, local engagement, and interdisciplinary artistic practices. Since its establisment, it has organized more than 20 exhibitions and provided opportunities for over 200 artists from different cities across Turkey. The iniatice aims to connect Ayvalık’s cultural and historical context with contemporary art, emphasizing accesibility, collectivity, and dialogue. Through exhibitions, talks, workshops, and collaborations, it builds an inclusive and participatory environment for artistic experimentation. In 2026, the Interdisciplinary Independent Art Workshop will bring together artists from the Aegean region for a week of collaborative production and exchange. The project, carried out in partnership with local iniatives, will culminate in public exhibitions that engage the audience as an integral part of the process. gri alan continues to build a sustainable ecosystem for independent art, strengthening local creative networks and establishing long-term collaborations across diverse artistic communities.

Hayy Open Space

Hayy Open Space is an independent art space located in Piyaleoğlu Han, Kemeraltı, İzmir. It focuses on contemporary art and organizes exhibitions, performances, workshops, talks, readings, and listening events within collective thinking and production practices across different disciplines. It aims to create space not for consumption but for production, listening, and experience. Hayy Open Space fosters an environment where creative minds, collectives, initiatives, and producers from cities not considered cultural and artistic centres can come together. It serves as a platform for actors from various disciplines in the cultural and creative fields to share their knowledge and expertise. Motivated by the desire to connect and co-create, Hayy Open Space is open to all disciplines, as long as they touch upon art and sharing. Since 2018, Hayy Open Space has brought together artists and creatives from various fields through exhibitions, talks, seminars, performances, and workshops. To date, Hayy Open Space has hosted over 30 events and collaborated with over 30 initiatives, collectives, and institutions. It aims to continue these collaborations in the future, while also contributing to the field by offering events and projects for actors seeking experience in the field and making the space available to anyone who needs it. In addition to opening its space to projects working in creative fields during the 2025-2026 season, Hayy Open Space is also implementing the Hayy Open School project, which includes both practical and theoretical training, as well as seminars, for artists and art workers.

Keter Studio

Keter Studio is an independent art, technology, and culture production space founded in Hemşin, a small mountain town in northeastern Turkey surrounded by the lush forests of the Black Sea. In the Hemşin language, "keter" [keˈtɛʁ] means engaging in an activity or keeping oneself busy without any obligation or pursuit of profit. This notion forms the foundation of the studio’s creative practice and its relationship to place. Guided by the principle of degrowth. The iniative approaches production not as aprocess driven by speed, efficiency, or capital, but as an act of relating, repairing, slowing down and coesting. Operating at the intersection of local ecology, cultural memory, and contemporary art, the studio hosts artist residencies, public projects, workshops, and community gatherings that foster collective modes of creation and exchange. Earlier projects focused on the disappearing Hemşin language and the region’s rich biodiversity, realized through repeated visits to the area. From mixed-media installations to robotic projects, from sculpture to code-based narratives, Keter Studio supports multidisciplinary production as both a workshop and a research platform. Open to collaborations and knowledge exchange that emphasize ecological awareness and community-based creativity, the studio seeks to provide not only resources for local production but also opportunities for creators from urban art ecosystems to experience slower, site-connected modes of making.

Loading

Loading aims to solve the problems artists encounter in their thought, production, and project stages by discussing them, to archive the city's contemporary art practices from the first quarter of the 2000s to the present day, to create artist files, Its motivation stems from guiding and supporting artists living in Diyarbakır and its surroundings in their thought, production, project, and exhibition processes, strengthening Diyarbakır's awareness and interaction in the international art field, making international contemporary art practices more accessible to individuals, archiving Diyarbakır's current art practices, and transforming Diyarbakır into a point of discourse production by creating environments for dialogue and discussion.and creating a community space where individuals interested in art can come together and develop their interests.

Merkezkaç Art Collective

Merkezkaç Art Collective works in the fields of development and production of art and artists in the cities of Diyarbakır, Batman and Mardin, and transports, shares and archives this production to the national and international arena. Merkezkac Art Collective is a non-profit, independent art collective that can carry out joint projects with public or institutional structures and other independent initiatives, collectives and artists in line with its principles. Merkezkac conducts personal, social and cultural studies that are sensitive to all disciplines of art, are versatile and open to all artistic views, support and encourage collaborations between disciplines. Giving importance to the artistic works of young artists living and producing in the region, The Collective provides active participation not only in the presentation and exhibition stage, but also in the entire production process for intellectual and practical application. Merkezkaç plays a role in the execution and realization of the projects, mediating the meeting of these productions with life and their experience by different segments, and works for the continuity of these processes. The Collective conducts project exhibitions, contemporary art reading workshops, art organizations and curatorial studies aimed at blending and developing today's art disciplines, transforming them and bringing them together at the same point. It develops local and international collaborations in the execution of these activities, supports existing collaborations, and is open to participation and support for Merkezkac. Collective Space, as an art space that invites social issues such as identity, gender, power, ecology, alienation, migration to be considered together with the current problems of contemporary art, also aims to contribute to keeping the dialogue environment alive between different art disciplines.

metr.cube

metr.cube is an itinerant artist-led initiative that interrogates mobility as both method and medium within contemporary cultural production. metr.cube uses being in motion as a method to intervene in the circulation of art, public encounters, and processes of meaning-making.  The initiative focuses on two distinct states of movement: macro-mobility, the movement of the exhibition apparatus across geographic and social territories; and micro-mobility, the reinterpretation of the vertical and horizontal infrastructures of movement that structure our daily spatial transitions. Working simultaneously across these two regimes of movement allows metr.cube to operate both as an itinerant platform in public space and to utilize everyday infrastructures of circulation. metr.cube operates in the productive tension between collaboration with and resistance to existing power structures, proposing that genuine accessibility requires not just opening doors, but fundamentally reconsidering where those doors are located, how they move, and who has the authority to set them in motion. The initiative continues to evolve as an open platform for future explorations of mobility, circulation, access, and the social life of artistic practice.

Montag Residency

Montag Residency is an independent, non-profit art initiative founded in 2023 in Gönen, Balıkesir. It develops projects focused on production, sharing, and solidarity by building bridges between local communities and artists. Operating in partnership with the Municipality of Gönen, Montag collaborates with partners in Balıkesir, Istanbul, and abroad to create production models that combine contemporary art, cultural heritage, and community-based research. The initiative works collaboratively and on a project-based structure.

Non.Sight

Non.Sight is an independent art initiative located in IMÇ, aiming to provide an accessible platform for experimental contemporary art. In 2021, artists Merve Denizci and Doğancan Yılmaz rented a space at 6th Block No: 6637, initially used as a living and production space; throughout the year, it was also opened to a limited number of exhi- bitions and events, providing an inclusive environment for artists. This experience shaped Non.Sight’s vision of offering an alternative plat- form where artists can sustain their creative practices.

sub

Since 2017, sub has been operating as an independent art initiative based in Çanakkale. It explores the relationship between artistic production, social life, and collective experience. Through its programs, sub develops collaborative processes between artists, researchers, and local communities, aiming to build horizontal, open, and care-oriented cultural structures. sub is rooted in forms of cultural production outside the cultural centers. It is concerned with how art develops beyond major cities, and how relationships with rural, migrant, or place-based communities reshape cultural practices? For the initiative, being ‘off’ center is not only a matter of geography but also a different mode of organization and expression. From this position, sub fosters slow-paced, relational, and community-based models of production—creating safe and inclusive spaces where diverse experiences can converge.

Yermekân

Founded in May 2022 in Ankara by independent artists Zeynep Üçöz, Ekin Kula, and Hazel Kılınç, Yermekân continues to exist as a space of both practical and lived collaboration. With the aim of providing a ground for creativity and production, it opens its facilities to collective use. In addition to workshops, it organizes free public events and occasionally hosts exhibitions. Throughout 2026, Yermekân will open its darkroom to four artists, aiming to support artistic and analog production while strengthening the shareability of art.