Shaker Abdel-Hamid approves caricature museum

According to artist George Bahgouri, on Tuesday 10 April the Association of Caricature received the Minister of Culture, Shaker Abdel-Hamid, at its headquarters, where he met with many newspaper cartoonists with the purpose of listening to their requests - all of which he agreed to. Present, in addition to Bahgouri and Ahmed Toghan, the president of the association, were Gomaa Farahat, Taha Hussein, Mohamed Effat, Abdel-Halim El Barageeny, Amr Fahmy, Samir Abdel-Ghany, Mohamed Omar and many others. According to cartoonist Samir Abdel-Ghany, Toghan, requested the founding of a museum to host the over 10,000 pieces held by the association, which are almost never on show, and Abdel-Hamid promised to draw up a plan. Baghouri also clarified that he requested that an international festival for the Art of Caricature should be established. "I have many friends abroad that I meet with and I believe having a festival will generate a creative atmosphere in addition to reviving tourism," he said. "I suggested that the festival should be done through an art-filled Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan, then back to Cairo.” To include one or two ministry representatives only, an organisational committee for the festival will be formed to draw curatorial and thematic plans and to come up with a budget. The minister also approved the publication of a series of books through the cultural centers on the pioneers of caricature, in addition to publishing books by caricaturists and participating in caricature fairs in European countries.