I hope to pay the artists' demands by the end of May

Iran Theater-In an interview with radio talk show” Guillaume “, Qader Ashna,new director of Performing Arts center said :” We hope that by the end of May this year, we will be able to pay all the demands of our artists and carry out careful planning with ease.”

He praised Shahram Karami, ex- director of Performing Arts Center.

“I would like to thank Shahram Karami, who is one of the good artists of this country and a friend of mine, and I must say that I have more experience and know theater better than my previous management, but at this time we are facing many problems such as coronavirus pandemic  that made it difficult.”

He continued:” since I became the director of the Performing Arts Center, one of the things I said to the Minister of culture was that artists' demands must be paid, and this is their inalienable right, and fortunately with the help of Dr. Abbas Salehi, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and Dr. Hosseini and with the initial talks we had, we hope that these demands will be paid. Of course, we paid part of these demands, which were related to the FADJR Theater Festival, and we hope that by the end of May, we will be able to pay all the demands and make careful planning with ease.”

He added:” In general, the budget of culture and art is less than other fields, and its percentage is not significant. Although in recent years governments have tried to increase it, it is still small, so I believe that in the field of theater, when a manager is appointed, he should serve. It is difficult for me to see an artist working in April  last year and I give the salary in April this year. This is not good . We need to schedule and plan accordingly to the budget and the facilities we have, so that there is not too much demand and no delay in paying the artists' demand.”