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ICEFA 2016 Prize Awards - Iran, Tehran, Kermanshah
15. 11. 2016
International Children's Exhibition of Fine Arts Lidice can boast with more than 20,000 children's entries from upwards of 70 countries that include works by children from Iran. Regularly there is about 500 of them, once the package from Iran contained nearly 1,000 entries. Iranian children have always been successful in the competition and their prizes have been sent via the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Czech Embassy in Teheran that has been interested in organizing the prize-giving ceremony. However, they have not manage to do so till this year because Kanoon, the organization that has been sending entries to Lidice, informed the Embassy that the winning children come not only from Teheran but all over Iran, which makes the prize-giving ceremony in Teheran impossible.
This time, however, some of the Iranian children did have their prize-giving ceremony organized.
Kanoon, which has been providing art education for children in many places of Iran for decades while publishing children's books and supporting artists and teachers, set up an art competition called Biennial International Children’s Art Competition Tehran.
Some years ago, the management of Kanoon decided to invite also foreigners to join the jury and this year's 8th edition, which was dedicated to the theme "Water" and admitted free themed entries as well, seeing 5,318 entries from 28 countries including Czechia and Slovakia, had among the members of the jury Ivona Kasalická, Curator of the International Children's Exhibition of Fine Arts, organized by a semi-budgetary organization of the Czech Ministry of Culture, the Lidice Memorial.
The second round of the contest took place on 7 November 2016 in the main Kanoon building in the centre of Teheran. Besides the ICEFA curator four Iranian members comprised the jury: the artists and teachers Zahra Absouran, Mamak Yahyapour, Nader Fatemi and the ex-director of Kanoon's Centre for Culture and Fine Arts, Mr. Mahdi Mojtahed. The assessed entries received 99 gold medals, 132 silver ones, 77 bronze ones and 235 honourable mentions Moreover, the jury decided that all participants would be sent a Certificate of Participation. Included in the programme was a presentation by Ivona Kasalická, who introduced 40 KANOON's teachers and artists in the audience to the history of Lidice, to the Lidice Memorial and the history of ICEFA Lidice as well as the art education in Czechia. As part of the presentation, a film about ICEFA Lidice was shown.
On the suggestion of the curator for personal presentation of prizes to the Iranian winners of the 44th ICEFA Lidice 2016, a 500 km-long journey was organized to the town of Kermanshah situated 120 km away from the border with Irak and in the proximity of the Kurdistan province. This town is home to 7 out of 14 child-winners of ICEFA Lidice 2016. Taking place in a very festive atmosphere in one of the Kanoon buildings on 9 November 2016, the prize-giving ceremony included some film screenings and children's dance performances. At the end, prizes were presented to all 7 children including 3 medallists. The prizes and gifts were presented to children by the curator along with top officials of Kanoon in Kermanshah and representatives of the town and the province. The same day another presentation took place for 16 Kanoon teachers, again presenting Lidice, the Lidice Memorial, ICEFA history and art education of Czech children.
Generally, the business trip was very successful and well accepted both by teachers and the representatives of Kanoon and was also appreciated in high places. It is good that the Lidice Memorial and ICEFA can spread the knowledge about Lidice, the Lidice Memorial, ICEFA Lidice and Czech art education of children, cooperating in the field of children's fine art activities also with more distant countries that have not been much discovered yet in the Czech culture. Being very interested in this cooperation, Iranian teachers and artists are looking forward to enhancing it.
