The institution at a glance

The cultural institution of the Islamic School of Art is one of the first cultural institutes that emerged from Qom Seminary and is active since 2005 in explaining the principles of religious thought and art in Islamic society and is training and educating clergies from around the country. After ten years of activity in this field, it has also obtained the necessary permits from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology to pursue its strategic objectives.

Islamic School of Art aims to achieve the following goals:

Explaining the principles of Religious thought in Art
Stabilizing the status of the Art in the Seminaries
Understanding the nature and potential that the Arts have on offer for a religious community
Integrating the Religious knowledge and commitment with Artistic expertise

Mission Statement

Islamic School of Art is one of the first cultural institutions emerged from Qom Seminary and was established to be active in the realm of religion and the arts to nurture students with religious backgrounds and education. It aims to explain the foundations of religious thinking in the Arts and also get involved in theoretical and practical education of Arts. The institute is active in the fields of domestic and foreign intellectuals (Seminary and University) with dynamic environments inspired by the scientific thinking tradition as well as a practical spiritual realm of Seminary and also using the latest scientific methods in order to establish a School of Islamic Art.

Education Deputy

The deputy of education will follow activity in two fields of Artistic Training programs and Higher Education programs.
The activities of the Institute of Islamic Art can be explained in the realm of art within the current performance and future prospects which will be the following:

A) In the Academic Year 1393 to 94 (2015-16) – the current majors and the number of students is as follows:

Masters: in the Hekma (Wisdom) of Islamic Art and in the field of Philosophy of Art;
PhD: degree in Hekma (Wisdom) of Religious Art.

B) Short-term and medium-term Training Horizon of the Institute

Future admissions in 7 Master’s degree and one PhD degree

The Institute, in collaboration with the University of Religions and Denominations in Qom, plans to admit students in the academic year of 1394-95 (2016-2017) in the following areas:

MA: Islamic Art Hekma (Wisdom), Philosophy of Art, Researching Arts, Theatrical Literature, Cinema, Iranian Architectural Studies, Cultural Studies and Media.
PhD level: The Hekma (Wisdom) of Religious Art

Programming and Commissioning Syllabi for twelve new graduate fields of study in 4 faculties until the year 1400 (2021):
Fields of study:

1. Philosophy of Art
2. Islamic Art Hekma (Wisdom)
3. Theology of Arts
4. Hekma (Wisdom) of Calligraphy and Painting
5. Theoretical Foundations of Persian Literature
6. Anthropology of Arts
7. Religion and Media
8. Narratology
9. Arts in the Qur’an and Sunnah
10. Arts in Religions
11. Islamic principles of Urbanism anArchitecture
12. Mythology

Art Education

The Open Education Department of the Islamic School of Art is aimed at increasingly familiarizing seminary students with Arts to promote their serious and effective presence in the most important and influential literary and artistic fields began its activity from 1384 (2005) with four fields of study: Fiction Writing, Screenplay Writing, Poetry and Journalism and currently hold your short and long term courses under two groups of Fiction and Cinema programs. The Department of Education has trained more than three thousand seminary students over the past decade.

Fiction Group

Using the most up-to-date teaching and the best teachers in the country, the Fiction Group of the Islamic School of Art aims to nurture artists in the fields of fiction and literary critics from among the interested and capable Seminary students. The long-term Curriculum (2 years), has been developed with advice from well-known teachers in the field that includes classes about the Basics of Story Writing, Workshops of Story Writing, and Professional Meetings on Studies of Fiction and Story. Holding the sessions for reviewing and critiquing the written stories are among other programs of the group.

Cinema Group

Cinema Group has provided an opportunity for seminary students to learn the manner of screenwriting from the relevant experts and professors in a professional atmosphere and in a correct manner. The long-term (2 years long) taught courses include Principles of Screenwriting, Workshop on Critiquing and Analysis of Films, and a specific course on Film Studies. Review story sessions and other specialized sessions are among the programs of this group. The previous graduates of this Group have published various analyses in the press and artistic centers of the country, some have already written the script for a television series and Tele films produced for IRIB and have cooperated and worked with the filmmakers in cinema and TV programs.

Short-term courses

The Islamic School of Art also holds specialized training courses and workshops for a variety of short-term periods (10 to 12 sessions) in order to familiarize students with different fields of art and literature or to prepare them to participate in more specialized courses. The diversity of the courses in each semester depends on students’ needs and requests and the institute welcomes changes. The respected Seminarians can enroll in two periods of registration during autumn and winter referring to the call deadlines of the institute. In the previous years, an average of 400 students per year have registered in such courses and nearly a hundred of the best teachers have taught arts in these courses.

The titles of short-term courses that have so far been held at the school are the following:

Understanding the philosophy of art, Contemporary Iranian poetry, History of Islamic architecture, Arabic translation, Photography, Writing and editing workshop, Graphic design, Creative writing workshops, Analysis of paintings, Research methods and writing, Workshop on reviewing and analyzing film.

Hall of Fame (Awards)

The following titles have been awarded to the artists of the institute in recent years:

Second Place of the Fiction Award in National Fiction and Poetry Festival for the Seminary Students in 1384 (2005)
The First, Second and Third Places of the Fiction Award in Celestial Arts Festival 1388 (2008)
Third Place in Sureh Young Fiction Writers Festival, 1393 (2013)
Prize for the best novel in the Celestial Arts Festival 1389 (2009)
First Prize for the Sepid (modern) Poetry in Fajr Poetry Festival 1389 (2009)
Chosen as one of the best short stories in Shahre-Ketab National Award 1387 (2007)
Third Place in Writing Scenario in the Celestial Arts Festival 1388 (2008)
Award for Documentary Films in the Ammar Festival 1392 (2012)
The First, Second and Third Places of the Fiction and Novel Award in Eshraq Art Festival 1393 (2013)
The first place of Short Story Writing in National Children Press Festival 1393 (2013)
Third place in Zanjan Short Story Festival 1393 (2013)
The Third Place in Story Festival of the Sacred Defense for the Qazvin Clergies 1393 (2013)
First Place in Tehran Story Festival 1394 (2014)
First place in Ammar Film Festival 1394 (2014)

Research Deputy

The core of all activities of the research department of the school is based on the belief that science and research capabilities of students, trainees and researchers should be upgraded to the extent that in the field of theoretical discussions of Art, in particular the relationship between Religion and Art, gain the intellectual positions and producers of domestic theories.

Publishers

Ordering for translation and writing for print of at least four books each year
Launching the promotion and distribution unit for publications
Enlisting the support and cooperation for print of related works
Strengthening the office of “Islamic Jurisprudence of Art” for the annual publication of a book on the topic art and pleadings of Fiqh course.

Note: This office is established as a religious specialized committee in the field of “Islamic Art” as of 1388 to discuss issues of jurisprudence and art with the necessary knowledge of the subject. This high-level committee consists of Qom Seminary teachers in the area of the Islamic jurisprudence, and so far the issues of jurisprudence in the arts of painting, sculpture, music and musical instruments have been discussed in this group – which was held on a weekly basis. Weekly outcome of discussions, in the course of Fiqh of Art – are offered in Feyziyeh School each day – and then its delivered pleadings are published after the revision, in throughput.

Library

From the beginning of the establishment of the Islamic School of Art, it has always been a priority to establish a rich library, which contains comprehensive, updated and original art resources and other relevant material.
Thus, the library of Islamic School of Art has been started in on 1384 (2005), and set up and equipped in order to meet the needs of Seminary students and art scholars interested in research and studies in philosophy of art.
the library of Islamic School of Art is currently active with over 35,000 volumes in Persian, Arabic and Latin in the following issues:
Persian language and literature, World literature, Literary criticism, Arts, Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics, History of Art in Islam and the world, Philosophy and Islamic Mysticism, Philosophy of the West, Culture and Media, Cinema, Theater, Arts forms such as Sculpture and dozens of other themes.
It also shares more than 80 domestic journals in the field of art and literature and enjoys a modern website with its features dedicated for the library.

The future programs of the Library include:

Equipping the library with the copies of original handwritten manuscripts of art
Strengthening the Latin compendium of texts in order to respond to the needs of researchers and professors
Collecting and organizing more than 30,000 e-books
Holding meetings for Book Review
Collecting Theses

The library of the Islamic School of Art is ready to offer all Seminary students interested in its services. The library is also open and serves other researchers in the Art from non-seminary backgrounds. The Library of Islamic School of Art plans to become one of the most important libraries in the Muslim world in the field of Religion and Art within the next decade.