The foundation of the Neşet Ertaş Culture and Arts Center has been laid in Kırsehir. When completed, the center will include exhibition areas and concert halls to serve 250,000 people, and will provide a venue for courses, workshops and many cultural events.
The buildings will have a modern and contemporary design. The center aims to meet the social needs of people, offering a diverse program of entertainment and activities.
The center also aims to address a wider audience, and to attract people to the cultural and social activities. There will even be an archeology museum in the center.
In addition, an old governor’s mansion in Kırşehir will be revamped and reopened as a museum celebrating the life and art of Turkish folk music composer, singer and bağlama virtuoso Neşet Ertaş, who died in a hospital in the Agean province of İzmir on Sept. 25. With the aim of exhibiting the heritage of Turkish folk music and passing on Ertaş’s art to future generations, the museum is expected to open on Sept. 25, 2013, the first anniversary of Ertaş’s death.
Ertaş is known as a “halk ozanı,” which literally means “folk poet.” The singer was born in 1938 in Kırtıllar, a village in the Central Anatolian province of Kırşehir, to his folk poet father, Muharrem Ertaş, and mother, Döne Koç.
