Lola, which is Lots of Lovely Arts, is an open studio for children and their families in Emirgan. Alara Hindle is the owner of this lovely place, she loves art and the children. We thank her for this lovely and warm interview
Can you tell us about your self ?
I went to the French school in London which is interesting, the school was international so I didn’ t only meet English person or French person but I was in a very multicultural environment. Then I went to Oxford and studied oriental studies, Islamic Art and Archaeology. I was always interested in Middle East because of my Turkish roots. In my third year I came to Turkey for one year and went to Istanbul University. I met my husband at that point. And then after one year I came back to London. In the mean time my mother owned a textile company where she worked between England and the factories in Turkey. I worked for her company for a few years and then relised that I hate it, the textiles.
I always wanted to do art ad I love kids. I did teaching English course with the British Counsel. I worked in some shools like, Small Hands, ABC. I enjoyed that a lot, I was doing private work as well. It was interesting but different for me to work in thoese schools because the system is so different. Children have to be changed their vests all the time, because they were sweating. We heated apples on the radiator, they were so allien to me.
Two years ago I moved to a bigger house and started doing this, I turned my house to an art studio for children. Then I needed a bigger space for the studio. I found this warehouse kind of looking place. I could customize this place due to my prior experience. I knew exactly what children needed.
Can you tell us how to be a foreigner in Turkey ?
Because of the multicultural background I have, I always tried to have this in Lola. There are a lot of things that I love about Turkey, I chose to live in here, but there are also a lot of difficulties like the traffic. There is already cultural difference in the family, my mother’s mother was Greek Orthadox and her father was Jewish, and Turkey is a cultutral mix, I can feel it here. People are always kind to me, I love the Turkish food, all the zeytinyağlı’s and börek’ s , they are lovely. I love the Bosphorus. Because I studied history of art, all the culture the museums are very very strong. Turkish people underestimate Turkey. I don’t think they give enough credit to all the good things in Istanbul. I have never seen a night life like in İstanbul. But life is also very difficult like with the traffic. But I love in here, and I think most of the foreigners love here.
What do you do in here, in LOLA ?
We have after school groups. We have Saturday morning workshops, every week we do different things like robots, mosaics seramics, jewelery making and so on. We work on re-cycling. It is very important to keep the designation of all of them. The children bring rubbish and we work on them. In private schools like Enka or Koç this is a very important subject.
We just started with a toddler group twice a week, and then we have a kindergarden group. And then we have a group from the first to fourth grade. After fourth grade they start slowly dying down because the school gets so stressfull and they don’t have enough time. It is important that here they have to have relaxed time. Children who enjoy art or create do come here. If a child do not enjoy it I tell them.
We speak here in English. But they are not learning language here, it is not educational. It is just fun and without realising it, it is like watching a catoon in English. The important thing here is it is a realaxing time and fun and being creative. We assist them but the children decide themselves what to do.
We have some parents groups like floral design workshop. We alo have mommas and their children group, they can come and use all this space and do whatever they want. It is better -I guess- for them rather than spending time in malls.
I have a good English books’ library, we have a reading tent here. I pick all the books by myself. In every session they have at least 15-20 minutes read and relax. For younger children I read to them.
We do also birthday parties, but it is more art related parties.
Thank you very much...
