SÜMERBAK NAZİLLİ PRINT-TEXTILE FACTORY AS A CULTURAL-CREATIVE INDUSTRY MODEL

Cultural heritage management has been studied in the international literature for a long time. However, it is an area that has attracted attention in our country in recent years. Heritage management naturally emphasizes the industrialization and branding of heritages. The relevant research area focuses not only on the transmission of culture, but also on the process of its use. It is important to examine the application examples in the inferential studies focused on obtaining results and application in this field. This type of analysis is helpful in model building.

The basic assumption of the study is that traditional knowledge memory, which is also defined as living cultural heritage, can be transformed into a cultural-creative industry resource as a sector in the context of sustainable development. In this study, which is based on cultural heritage management and cultural economy, the Sümerbank Nazilli Print-Textile Factory, which offers a model example as a cultural-creative industry and is Turkey’s first industrial establishment in the printing field, is emphasized. The main reason why the factory was selected for review is that it has products nourished by tradition and created a unique clothing culture in the context of its period. The fact that these are still used as decorations and motifs in the 21st century is also important for the study.

The study has been discussed in the perspective of the “Circuit of Culture”. This approach was developed by British cultural theorists in the late 20th century as a tool for cultural analysis. There are five elements in the approach: “representation, identity, production, consumption and regulation”. This approach reveals how a cultural text or any cultural artifact is represented and which social identities are associated with it. Furthermore, this approach examines how it is produced and consumed, and what mechanisms regulate its distribution and use. According to this, every cultural product has a meaning in social life. Cultural meanings circulate and are maintained in society with the five elements mentioned. In this context, firstly, the production role of Sümerbank Nazilli Print-Textile Factory for a certain period was examined in the study. In the second stage of the study, the social, cultural and economic outputs of the factory, both locally and nationally, were examined from a holistic perspective in the context of the Circuit of Culture.

In the study, it has been determined that Sümerbank Nazilli Print-Textile Factory has a function as a cultural center and creates a culture of its own by preserving local-authentic values. In addition, in the study, it was concluded that the factory is a cultural, creative and economic sector in terms of its operation, product output and widespread impact. For this reason, it has been stated that, the factory can provides an example of a model for cultural-creative industries to achieve sustainable development and more specifically cultural heritage-based goals in Turkey’s 2023 development vision, in the context of production culture.