VISUAL ARTISTS FROM 20 COUNTRIES COMING TO IRAN FOR YOUTH FESTIVAL

Cultural Heritage News

16th International Visual Arts Festival for Youth

Tehran, July 1, 2009: The northern city of Gorgan in Golestan Province
will be hosting the 16th International Visual Arts Festival for Youth
from July 11 to 14.

The director of the Visual Office of the Ministry of Culture and
Islamic Guidance Mahmud Shaluii in a press conference held here on
Tuesday at Tehran+s Vahdat Hall said that the 16th edition of the
festival would be held with international participants aged from 16
to 25. "Several regional Islamic countries took part in the previous
edition. This year, artists from 20 countries, including China,
Pakistan, Armenia, Kuwait, Senegal, Afghanistan, and Germany will be
participating," Shaluii added. He said that the festival features
sections for drawing, painting, calligraphy, miniature, sculpture
and cartoons, MNA reported. The opening ceremony will take place on
the morning of July 11, and several workshops and street paintings
are also scheduled during the program, Shaluii explained.

Secretary of the festival Gholamreza Montazeri, also at the conference,
said that the festival helps develop the potentials of the province,
adding, "220 Iranian and 40 foreign artists will be participating in
the two major sections of the exhibition and in workshops."

Montazeri added that on the side section of the festival, several
other programs including exhibition of paintings by Iranian masters,
and holding tours for the participants to visit beautiful sites of
the province are also arranged.