MOCT prepares for the opening of the Wasiti Festival tomorrow, Saturday

Baghdad - INA

 The Fine Arts Department of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities is preparing to open the Al-Wasiti Festival for Fine Art, in its thirteenth session, at the Arts Department Hall in the Ministry's office.

 The director general of the department, Dr. Ali Awaid, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): "Preparations have been underway for four months in the department through publishing an open invitation to participate in all media outlets, and the eighth of October has been set as the deadline for receiving the posts."

 Awaid added that "the festival has two moral values, the first is related to beauty, and the second is material and aims to achieve material benefit for the participating artists," noting that "the festival's artistic committee included representatives of the College of Arts at Baghdad University, the Artists Syndicate and the Fine Artists Association."

 He added that "the festival will witness displaying 325 works by 290 artists, according to one or two works for each participant, distributed among 159 paintings, 89 sculptures, 13 ceramic pieces, and 64 calligraphy pieces," noting that "the department addressed the official authorities and the three presidencies to acquire works that will be presented at the festival with the aim of helping artists ".

 Awaid stressed that "the festival will be a permanent marketing center, and it will continue its work to promote the work of plastic artists locally, in the Arab world, regionally and internationally, to sell these works directly and electronically."