Winners of the National Seal of Excellence were announced in a ceremony at the Carpet Museum of Iran in the presence of Masoud Soltanifar, the head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization and Bahman Namvar Motlaq, his deputy for handicraft affairs.
The five winners, who were selected from among 110 contestants, included Behnam Mohammadi Kashkuli from Fars Province for reviving and collecting nomadic kilims of the province and taking part in160 domestic and foreign expos, Mojtaba Haji Gholami from Yazd Province for functional copper crafts, Shahrzad Aliyari from Alborz for innovation in traditional Iranian jewelry, Kourosh Arish from Tehran Province for creative design of ceramic, and Bahram Taherian from Kermanshah Province for exquisite woodcrafts called Mohrkari (seal work).
Several directors of provincial offices of ICHHTO including Isfahan, Tehran, Qazvin, Fars, East Azabaijan, Kermanshah and Khorasan Razavi were commended for their contribution to the handicraft industry in their provinces.
After the award ceremony participants visited the part of the carpet museum where almost 800 selected artworks of the finalists were on display.
