Baksı Museum

Baksı Museum stands in the village of Bayraktar, once called Baksı, in Bayburt, between Gümüşhane and Erzurum. It shows contemporary art and traditional crafts side by side under one roof. The artist and academic Hüsamettin Koçan, who was born in Bayburt, conceived the project in 2000. The Baksı Kültür Sanat Vakfı was founded in 2005 to build it.

The main building was finished in 2010 without state funding and opened that July. Its 1,500 square metre hall holds temporary exhibitions of contemporary art and design. Depo Müze, a storage museum of about 1,000 square metres, was added in 2012. It shows the collection, from folk painting, reverse glass painting and embroidery to calligraphic pictures, ceramics and contemporary works. The site also has workshops, a library of some 10,000 publications, a 150 seat conference hall and a guest house.

The foundation runs employment projects for women and gives scholarships to gifted children from the region. In 2014 the museum received the Council of Europe Museum Prize at a ceremony in the Palais Rohan, Strasbourg.