TEHRAN -- The Iranian Academy of Arts (IAA) plans to bring the ignored Iranian national and regional arts to the limelight at a three-day conference in Tehran.

Entitled “The Forgotten Treasuries Conference”, the convention will begin on December 16.
“The IAA, based on its articles of association, is tasked with safeguarding the national and regional arts. Thus the institution accepted a proposal presented by the IAA Traditional Arts Department about two years ago to hold a conference on forgotten national and regional arts,” IAA secretary Bahman Namvar-Motlaq said at a press conference here on Tuesday.
“About ten preliminary meetings have been held to discuss the subject with experts and artists from the older generation,” he added.
After the discussions, the IAA emphasized the necessity for the establishment of an organization for the forgotten national and regional arts.
“Many countries have carried out a variety of activities to introduce their national and regional arts, but we have neglected our national arts,” Namvar-Motlaq said.
“The attachment of these countries to their national arts is not just nostalgia about these fields (of art). They have complete confidence in the bright future of these arts, and they believe that the future belongs to these types of arts… but our country is not ready for such a future,” he observed.
The revival of the forgotten national and regional arts is one of the aims of the conference.
“Only the name has remained of some of our national and regional arts. Some of these fields (of art) can not be revitalized due to the dearth of information available about them, but we want to revive those fields of art, which still exist, more or less,” Namvar-Motlaq noted.
One of the other goals of the symposium is to encourage the younger generation to think about these arts and support the people working in these fields.
In addition, the organizers plan to discuss the establishment of a permanent secretariat for the conference, which will be held biennially or triennially.