A Meaningful Support From Kastamonu Entegre To The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations
Turkey's first Visually Impaired Museum Learning Space built with the support of Kastamonu Entegre
Kastamonu Entegre, a global brand in the wood-based panel industry, is now the MDF raw material sponsor of the ‘tactile museum’ project launched by the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. As part of the project launched to make the museum accessible to the visually impaired individuals, Turkey's first Visually Impaired Museum Learning Space was developed with the support of Kastamonu Entegre. Maintaining its operations with the motto of 'bridging nature and life', Kastamonu Entegre donated over 120 sheets of melamine-surfaced MDF Medelam and raw MDF Medepan to the museum for furniture in the learning space.
Aiming to reach out to 10 thousand visually impaired children in the first year
Kastamonu Entegre's CEO Haluk Yıldız stressed that they were proud to be a part of the ‘tactile museum’ project that aims to make the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, celebrating the 100th anniversary of its foundation, accessible to visually impaired individuals, and said:
“As Kastamonu Entegre, we are striving to make life better using the power we derive from nature. Our priority is to support inspiring architectural projects that focus on making living spaces accessible to all, aesthetic and enjoyable. In this context, we sponsored Turkey's first Visually Impaired Museum Learning Space and supplied MDF for furniture in this space. Visually impaired visitors will be able to explore the museum by touching the 3D replicas of the artifacts exhibited in this space and by using explanations written in Braille alphabet as well as audio descriptions. The aim for the first year to reach out to 40 percent of visually impaired children in Ankara, that is, 10 thousand children. I hope that this meaningful project and collaboration will set a role model for all museums and companies.”
“We pave the way for engagement for the improvement of environmental and human values”
Sending his congratulations to the Bongo Art Project, a social initiative led by the designer and interior architect Çiğdem Aslantaş, for the value they added to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Yıldız continued:
“The project being awarded the Sustainable Future Prize was also an important motivator for us. We became the first company in the Turkish wood-based panel industry to prepare and regularly maintain a sustainability report. At the core of our perception of sustainability is not only safeguarding environmental and human values, but also contributing to the improvement of these values and paving the way for engagement. The ‘Employee Engagement Prize’ we were awarded in Sustainable Business Awards Turkey 2020 is a good example of this. Similarly, the tactile museum project, which supports engagement, coincides exactly with our company's approach to sustainability, so we readily supported it.”
The Bongo Art Project Founder Çiğdem Aslantaş expressed her thanks to Kastamonu Entegre for supporting the project and and all the organizations that contributed to it, and said, “As the Bongo Art Project social initiative, we brought together the public-private industries and NGOs on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. We are proud to have volunteered for the accessibility of the museum for two and a half years and to now bring the project to life. At first step, we catered for all items needed for our project that is intended to reach out to 10 thousand visually impaired children in Ankara, thanks to our 23 sponsors and in-kind contributions. Our greatest wish is that the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, which is our very first project, will produce a domino effect and expand to 497 museums and archeological sites in Turkey in the form of more accessible museums by encompassing other groups of the disabled.”
