To assure the maintenance and prevent the devaluation of handicrafts it is a must that different disciplines should work jointly through an integrated system. This type of a framework calls for tight links between museuming, marketing, and production of handicrafts. The cooperative venture between local firms, public/private institutions and designers/craftsmen need to be extended to include the museuming of these products as well to support the expansion of a design-culture. As the above listed firm-designer/craftsman pairs indicate this interaction between culture and business seems feasible and profitable. Hence, the idea of Officiamuseum –the regional museum system of design and applied arts, an ‘action’ aimed at forming tight links between the various local realities, interacting with similar institutions, including the future museum of design, would provide a unique opportunity to integrate museums of applied arts and handicrafts and artisan firms (Gambardella, 2005). This kind of an integrated museum system linking firms and museums tradition of arts and crafts spread over different regions both in Turkey and in other regions such as Italy and Morocco is of the greatest cultural (design-culture) and economic (marketability) importance.

Ayşe ÖZBIL