Thursday, 18 October
Today turned out to be a particularly busy day. It started out with a stroll I took in Kültürpark while mom and Aylin dealt with their household chores. Then came a museum visit with Aylin. To round-out the day, we accepted an invitation for afternoon tea at Hansel & Gretel, a popular bakery-cum-café, with long-time friends who live on the third floor of mom’s apartment building.
One of the few blooms at the Rose Garden in Kültürpark.
There’s been a rash of boutique museums popping up around İzmir in recent years. Operated by the Konak Municipality, they are inexpensive and fun places to while away a few hours. Aylin and I have already been to the Maske Müzesi (Mask Museum — post here). Today we went to the Ümran Baradan Oyun ve Oyuncak Müzesi (Museum of Games and Toys), named for the famous Turkish ceramic artist who donated the building in which the museum is housed. We couldn’t find an address on the website, but Aylin had a vague idea of where to find it, so off we went. Asking for directions once we reached the city center confirmed that we were on the right track as we walked up Varyant, a road that circles up a steep hill like a coiled snake.
Looking down from Varyant to Konak from the overlook across the street from the museum.
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Statues of children playing on the grass in front of the museum
left no doubt that we had found the right place.
On exhibit inside the museum we found toys collected by Mrs. Baradan during her world travels, and others donated by citizens of the city. As well, there were award-winning model houses built by kids for art competitions sponsored by Mrs. Baradan. On the second floor, a room was dedicated to the traditional Turkish shadow play — Karagöz ve Hacivat — but there were no performances on this day.
Aylİn checks out some of the toys on display in the main room of the museum.
Except for some small labels indicating the origin of some of the toys, there wasn’t much in the way of signage … so I’ll share my photos in the same manner — with limited captions.
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Model of a Hungarian farm house … took the ribbon for second place in one of the
contests sponsored by Ümran Baradan.
Pop-up Christmas toy; USA; 1920-1930.
I remember playing with a set of building blocks just like these. How about you?
I never had a Kirk doll — nor a Spock or McCoy doll, either —
but I was an avid fan of the TV show.
And to wrap up … in addition to being a ceramics artist, Ümran Baradan was skilled with paint brushes and oils. A couple of her canvases hang in the museum for visitors to enjoy.
I don’t recollect the admittance fee we paid, but I know it wasn’t much. A fun place to spend an hour or two. You can take a virtual trip for free, though. Just click here. Once at the website, you can use the dropdown list on the upper left of the screen to go inside the museum.
