In the 100th year of our Republic, the Nuremberg Toy Museum, the oldest and most prestigious of the world’s toy museums, is hosting the exhibition “Toys of Türkiye – Sunay Akın’s Treasures”. With this exhibition, our museum, which works on the history of children and toys in Turkish museology, achieves a first.
Years of cooperation between the directors of the two toy museums in Nuremberg and Istanbul played an important part in creating and developing the exhibition “Toys of Türkiye – Sunay Akın’s Treasures”. The Nuremberg Toy Museum was a source of inspiration for Sunay Akın during his visit to Nuremberg in 1994, and relations with the Nuremberg Toy Museum grew stronger with the founding of the European Association of Toy and Children’s Museums (TOYCO) in 2012.
The exhibition collection, which will meet visitors from 28 April 2023 to 28 April 2024, consists of about 140 toys dating from the 1890s to the present day, which tell the story of Türkiye’s culture and toy history, from the collection of the poet and writer Sunay Akın. While the specially selected toys tell the history of childhood in Türkiye, the aim is to build a strong link between the past and the present, with the toys as witnesses of games and dreams.
Puppets made in the early 1900s, Eyüp toys, handmade toys from Anatolia and ferries, the symbol of Istanbul: a selection of the most original examples of our toy history is on display in this exhibition. An important feature of the exhibition that attracts attention is the richness of the world of imagination that children created in our culture.
The exhibition “Toys of Türkiye – Sunay Akın’s Treasures” opened on Thursday 27 April with speeches by Karin Falkenberg, Director of the Nuremberg Toy Museum; Prof. Dr. Julia Lehner, Mayor of Nuremberg; Rahmi Asal, Director of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums; Belgin Akın, Director of the Istanbul Toy Museum; and Sunay Akın, founder of the museum.
Guests at the opening of the exhibition included the Consul General in Nuremberg, Serdar Deniz; Count Charles Alexander von Faber-Castell of Faber-Castell and his wife Melissa Eliyeşil; the Director of the Nuremberg Museums, Dr. Thomas Eser; the stage actors Ceyda Düvenci and Metin Uca; and the musician Kabus Kerim. Among the scientists at the opening were Prof. Dr. Ozana Ural, Fethiye Esra Molu and Işık Kamaraj, who do scientific work on children in Türkiye, together with Elena Gomez Parra from Spain and Dalila Lino from Portugal.
In her speech, Mayor Prof. Dr. Julia Lehner said that games and toys are mirrors that reflect our lives, and she emphasised the importance of preserving toys and passing them on to future generations, because they also develop and support our artistic side. She also said that toys help us to know each other more closely and better.
After Rahmi Asal spoke about the history of Turkish museology, Belgin Akın and Sunay Akın told the story of their work, which began with the dream of founding a museum, and of how, 18 years after the opening of the Istanbul Toy Museum, the history of Turkish toys and games reached Germany. Sunay Akın pointed out that the directors of the Istanbul Toy Museum are women and emphasised that the exhibition opened at the Nuremberg Toy Museum, one of the most valuable museums in Europe, is an achievement of the women of the Republic. Speaking of the importance that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave to women’s rights, Sunay Akın also thanked the visitors who have stood by and supported the Istanbul Toy Museum since the day it was founded.
After the opening speeches, the stage actor Mehmet Erbil began his performance with a Hacivat and Karagöz shadow play and finished it with a play in which Karagöz comes out from behind the screen and looks for his friend Hacivat in the museum.
In the exhibition, which will be open to visitors for one year, Sunay Akın’s toy stories are supported with visual and audio elements, and play areas have been created for children and adults.