Art And Culture
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Iranian Literati Receive Top Art Certificates

Iranian Literati Receive  Top Art Certificates
Iranian Literati Receive  Top Art Certificates

Six celebrated literary figures received art certificates of the first degree from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance on August 2.

At a meeting of the ministry's Committee for Evaluation of Artists, war writer and journalist Morteza Sarhangi, 62, fiction writer, researcher and literary critic Belqeys Soleimani, 52 and researcher in contemporary history Alireza Kamarei, 49, received the certificates.

Three other art certificates of first degree were issued in absentia for poet and writer Mohammad Hussein Mahdavi, 72, poet Yadollah Maftoun Amini, 89 and fiction writer Majid Qeysari, 49.

Holders of art degree certificates are entitled to certain privileges like permits to open art institutes.

The meeting was attended by Seyyed Abbas Salehi, cultural deputy, Seyyed Mohammad Mojtaba Husseini, secretary of the Council for Supervision and Evaluation of Artists, affiliated to the ministry, and a group of writers, IBNA reported.

"In the past, the artists who received the certificates were mostly those who applied for them," Salehi said. But the evaluation council adopted a new approach to present a more comprehensive view of the country's artistic and literary development.

"Accordingly, the prominent figures in art and literature are first identified and the council reviews their cultural background before conferring the certificates."

Mojtaba Husseini said the ministry evaluates the artists and ranks them so that they can be easily identified. "There was a gap between our administrative system and the process of identifying the literati. The Committee for Evaluation of Artists has filled the gap in recognition of artists by the administrative system."

On the process of evaluation, he said expert committees comprising 18 members evaluate the artists in the fields of visual arts, poetry and literature, performing arts and cinema. The committees make these assessments at their regular sessions and submit the list of artists selected to the Council for Supervision and Evaluation of Artists. In the second phase, after the council's approval, the art degree certificates are issued."

There is a distinction between an art degree certificate and an art medal, Husseini said, explaining that the latter is granted by the president and has its own tradition. But an art degree certificate confers a rank on an artist and along with it some perks.

Financialtribune.com