Arter

A place with potential.

Pros:

• Building is well designed for modern art exhibitions, airy and bright. Current exhibitions were not for my taste, but they were temporary.
• Unlike many other museums of Istanbul, this one does not seem to discriminate against foreigners, for example, free entrance on Thursdays for all, including foreigners.
• The bookshop inside the gallery has the biggest selection of English language books I've seen in Istanbul so far.

Cons:

• Located in quite a rough neighborhood (on the edge of it, not in the middle). To walk to the gallery from Taksim metro station I had to cross some street blocks where there were some men staring, leering and smiling in creepy ways; as a solo woman (despite being dressed in baggy clothes and fully covered) I did not feel very comfortable even during the day. However, the appearance of this gallery (and some neighbouring hotels) probably means that the area is about to get gentrified in the coming years - not sure if that's a good thing for the locals or not.

Walk in groups or take a taxi and go see it. 🙂