Atatürk Cultural Centre (AKM)

The New Home of Culture 

The centre hub for arts and culture in the city, the recently renovated Atatürk Cultural Centre (AKM), offers a colourful programme ranging from theatre performances to concerts and ballet performances. Architecturally, the complex is characterised by the massive, bright red hemisphere as you enter. 

The giant red sphere houses the main and unique entrance to the opera house that, upon opening, presented the world premiere of Sinan, an opera focused on the history of the famous architect Mimar Sinan, remembered in Türkiye as the “Architect of Architects”. 

The textured surface of this monumental sphere constitutes in itself an abstraction of the identity of the AKM and its complex artistic advancement that will receive fans of the culture from all over the world. 

The centre includes the Grand Stage, the Concert Hall, the Chamber Theatre, the Aziz Nesin Stage, and a separate cinema hall.

The centre hosts many state arts groups, including the İstanbul State Opera and Ballet, the İstanbul State Symphony Orchestra and Choir and the İstanbul State Classical Turkish Music Choir. The Cultural Centre is also the venue for the city’s arts and culture festivals, which feature talent from all over the country. 

The construction exhibits sublime components of contemporary architecture that pivot when shifting from the numerous features it houses. In addition to the Opera House, there’s the Arts Plaza that unfolds on different levels where you can discover multimedia installations that seem to interact with visitors the moment you enter or are about to leave a room.