Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults
 |
|
| Type | Cultural |
|---|---|
| Established | 8 January 1965 |
| Founder |
Farah Diba Leyli Amir Arjmand |
| Chairman | Mehdi Mahmoudian |
| President | Alireza Hajian Zadeh |
|
Academic staff
|
Book, Short film, Documentary, Music, Animation, Puppet Show, Toy, Computer training software |
| Location | Tehran, Iran |
| Website | Official website |
Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA, Persian: كانون پرورش فكری كودكان و نوجوانان , Kanoon-e Parvaresh-e Fekri-e Koodakan va Nojavanan, better known as Kanoon) is an Iranian institution with a wide range of cultural and artistic activities in the field of mental and cultural development for children and young adults. The organization was at the center of the vanguard of cultural production in the late 60s and early 1970s and is the platform through which many of Iran's most regarded artists and filmmakers, such as Abbas Kiarostami and Morteza Momayez, launched their careers.
Founded in 1965, Kanoon was originally one of the many cultural initiatives that fell under the broad purview of Farah Diba. Its initial ambitions were educational and social in nature; the program, led by one of Farah's close friends Lili Amir-Arjomand, involved building a network of both permanent and traveling libraries across the country in order to promote culture and literacy. During this period, Kanoon's publishing consisted only of translating and importing western classics such as Hans Christian Andersen. Eventually, Kanoon began producing and publishing its own books and soon after grew to be not just a social organization, but also a prolific producer of many kinds of materials for children.
At the center of this leg of the initiative was Firooz Shirvahnloo, who acted as both co-director and as an informal Art Director for the organization. Through Shirvanloo, Kanoon attracted many of the famous names that are associated with the project today: Abbas Kiarostami, Farshid Mesghali, Noureddin Zarrinkelk, Amir Naderi, Morteza Momayez, Ali Akbar Sadeghi, and more. Shirvanloo's strong political leanings also attracted an equally significant group of left-wing writers and researchers. (He was fired in 1972 for this very reason.)
Eventually the book publishing and illustration segued into animation which then segued into film, which required posters and pretty soon Kanoon was producing everything from toys designed by sculptors, to staging theatrical productions, printing LPs of Iranian music, LPs of Western Classical music, LPs of poetry, festivals, and conferences. Many these materials toured with the traveling libraries.
...
Wikipedia