Fereli, Melih (b. August 22, 1948, Istanbul), arts manager. Melih Fereli, founding director of Arter, has been an arts and culture consultant for the Vehbi Koç Foundation (VKV) since 2005.
Fereli attended the Istanbul High School for Boys until 1965, and completed his secondary education as an AFS fellow at Waynesboro Area High School in Pennsylvania State, USA, in 1966. He studied engineering in the undergraduate department of Robert College (now Boğaziçi University) and graduated in 1970. In 1971, he completed an MSc in Fluid Mechanics at Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), USA. From 1973 to 1985, he worked at Lucas Industries in the UK. In addition to performing as a tenor member of the London Philharmonia Chorus, he also served on its executive board between 1985 and 1992, returning to Turkey in 1993 when he became director general of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV). He continued in the post until 2001.
Between 2002 and 2005, Fereli worked as a freelance arts manager, before becoming culture and arts consultant at VKV in 2005. He was also founding director of Arter when it opened in 2010. He curated Erdem Helvacıoğlu’s exhibition “Freedom to the Black” and Sarkis’ “Interpretation of Cage/Ryoanji”, organized by Arter. While still serving on the Arter Executive Board and as the founding director, Fereli is also a member of the teaching staff at Istanbul Technical University Dr. Erol Üçer Center for Advanced Studies in Music. He is also a member of the TEGV Board of Trustees. In 1998, Fereli received an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to Turkish-British cultural relations.