Muhsine Duygu began her early studies at the Turkish Decorative Arts Center of the National Library of the Ministry of Culture in 1987.  At that time, she worked in several departments such as the museum manuscripts and microfilm. In order to improve her self artistically, elevating her works to an academic level, in 1989, she met and became a student of Prof Dr Cicek Derman, a leading scholar at Marmara University  and Kubbealti Academy Culture and Art Foundation in Istanbul. She spent five years between  1989-1994 in intensive studies at Kubbealti Academy under the supervision of Dr Derman. 

Some of the activities that she participated in at the request of National Library were; 

• Exhibition of her work in several Turkish cities as part of librarianship week.
• A study of placards in celebration of 1991- “Yunus Emre Love Year.”
• Silk Road Exhibition in National Library, 1993.
• Exhibition in The Swiss Hotel, Istanbul, 1995 for the IFLA conference.
• An exhibition in Konya during the ceremonies of “Seb-i Arus Celebrations”, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture Turkey. 
• A group study of the development of “Tığ” motifs in illumination art from the 12th to the 20th centuries in original manuscript books. This work was then published by the Ministry of Culture as a prestigious book.

In 1995, Muhsine Duygu participated in the Turkish Decorative Arts Competition, arranged by Ministry of Culture of Turkey and she was awarded in the illumination category by her “Asma-ul Husna” work. 

Since 1995, she has organized traditional Turkish-Islamic Arts Exhibitions with Religious Foundation of Turkey, which took place at Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara during the month of Ramadan. 

Her first international exhibition took place in 1996 in Columbus, Ohio during the ISNA conference. In 1997, she gave seminars to teachers who took part in illumination art courses arranged by the Ministry of Education in Turkey. She founded the “Turkuaz Fine Arts Center” in 1997 in Ankara, Turkey. In the same year she was selected as “Artist of the Year” by Youth Magazine in the category of Traditional Turkish-Islamic Arts.  

In 1999, she opened and exhibit of Turkish-Islamic Arts in Cape Town, South Africa, during the parliament of the World’s Religions. 

In May 2000, she organized an exhibition of Turkish Islamic Arts in The Marmara Hotel for the “European Union Council” sponsored by Turkuaz Fine Arts Center with the assistance of Religious Foundation of Turkey. In August 2000 she presented an exhibit in Chicago, Illinois during the ISNA Conference and following year she was invited back to that conference in Chicago for re-exhibition.

In May 2003, Muhsine Duygu was again selected as “The Artist of The Year” at the activities of the “World Women Day Celebrations” by the City of Ankara. 

In July 2003, Muhsine Duygu came to United States to exhibit the works of Turkuaz Fine Arts Center in the following states; 

• New York             21-30      September 2003
• Pennsylvania        2-10       October 2003
• Louisiana             9-21      November 2003

In 2005 from February to April, Muhsine Duygu was invited by The Istanbul Cultural Center to exhibit Turkuaz Fine Arts Center’s works in Atlanta, Georgia. Later in 2005, between 29 October and 10 November, she was invited to Nigeria by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey to make an exhibition for the “Republic Day Celebrations of Turkey”. 

In April 2006, she organized a special exhibition with the works of Turkuaz Fine Arts Center for “Annual Birthday Celebrations of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)” by the request of “Presidency of Religious Affairs of The Republic of Turkey”.

(Back to top)