Qena Culture Palace to Re-Operate

By Ali Abu Dashish

CAIRO, Mar. 17 (SEE)- Dr. Anas Abdel-Dayem, Minister of Culture and Major General Abdelhamid El-Hagan, Governor of Qena, and Dr. Ahmed Awad, Head of the General Organization of Culture Palaces, launched the beginning of the cultural and artistic activities of Qena Culture Palace.

This comes after its development and rehabilitation was suspended for 3 years. The ceremony was attended by the executive leaders in the province.

The minister of culture said that Qena Governorate is full of artists and creative figures and it is dedicated to Egypt great pioneers of Egypt and Arab culture world . such as: Abdurrahman El-Abnoudi and Amal Dunkul. She added that Qena Culture Palace is a great cultural resource that injects innovation into the arteries and the heart of Upper Egypt.

Al-Dayem praised the accomplishment of the National Service Authority – under the Armed Forces, which completed the work before the scheduled time. This supports the efforts of the Ministry of Culture in developing the structure of its institutions in all parts of the Republic to distribute the cultural service. It also includes creating an atmosphere that enables the ministry to discover and enrich talented people and to develop the artistic and creative taste of the people of Egypt; and to fulfill their needs through organizing activities for children, women, youth and those with special abilities.

The main objective of the re-opening of these palaces and projects is to build the Egyptian human being in accordance with the strategy of cultural sustainable development ,moving in parallel tracks with the development taking place in all areas of the state.

On his part ,Dr. Ahmed Awwad, head of the Cultural Palaces organization, said that the process of development and modernization was taking place rapidly to provide a service that suits Qena -the great Governorate - and its citizens.

He also stressed that, since June 2018, five cultural sites were opened, in addition to three sites in the governorates of Qena and Luxor- that makes 8 sites in 9 months - to deliver culture services in a professional way to the Egyptian citizens.

Awwad added, "We are preparing to open three different sites in Al- Sharqia Governorate. This comes as part of a strategy that aims at delivering the cultural and artistic services to the people of the nation with the highest efficiency."

It is worthy of note that The Qena Culture Palace was built on an area of 1437 meters in1984; it was delivered to the General Organization of Culture Palaces in 1997, then it was suspended since 2016.

The palace building consists of 7 floors with a main hall, a plastic arts hall, a children's training room, a library containing 12,000 books, a computer room. It also houses other halls for literary and administrative activities, as well as two theaters- the first accommodates 750 seats , the second is a summer theater in the attached children palace which is equipped and prepared for those with special abilities.