In an interview with symposium’s press room, Seyed Mohsen Hashemi declared: “human beings’ personal perfection and development will only be achieved beyond physical needs of everyday life. As long as people are concerned with livelihood and social security issues, art and culture not only won’t be the first but also will be among last priorities.
Speaking of executive process of the first international Imam Ali painting symposium with 11 foreign and 7 Iranian artists present at Imam Ali religious arts museum, he added: “ more than 1100 visited the workshops of the symposium during the event, and observed artists creating their artworks based on the theme ‘Justice and Compassion’ .“
Head of Imam Ali museum continued: “however, the more professional an event is, less the viewers will be, nevertheless visitors did not attend this event as a fancy, but we witnessed a deep professional level of interest here.”  
While mentioning obstacles and difficulties at such environments he pointed out: “unfortunately there is still no clear perception of how vital is to hold a well-organized event in the field of arts, and the absence of such understanding is obvious in lack of cooperation from various bodies in charge.”
Imam Ali religious arts museum director outlined main objectives of holding the event and declared: “Imam Ali religious arts museum decided to organize the first international Imam Ali painting symposium to establish religious instructions through artistic expression, for which artists created their artworks considering justice and compassion as main attributes of Imam Ali.”
He added: “Imam Ali’s auspicious birth ceremony as it refers to the name of the museum, promoting art events and spreading religious concepts and instructions through artistic expression, and providing new possibilities for Iranian and foreign artists to exchange their experiences were among main motives for which this event was initiated. Considering economical values of Iranian and foreign artists’ artworks added, it seems the whole idea proved to be successful up to more than 70 percent.”
Regarding the idea of organizing the event based on the theme ‘justice and compassion’ he explained: “major part of inherited Iranian art is either derived from religious themes , is a result of Iranian artists’ love and dedication to religious concepts, or is commissioned so by kings.”
“…however it is inevitable that religious point of view is less emphasized in art today, while spiritual expression has deepened.”
Having said that, visual arts and museum affairs manager of culture and art organization of Tehran municipality, marked the admirable work of artists within 6 days, 9 hours a day, and said: “artists generally are not much interested in commissioned art; on the contrary they are more inclined to depict their own internal experiences and what happens at the moment. However, theme based creation of arts today has found a new reputation beyond its former traditional cliché, and subject oriented art has acquired a new established significance.”
“Final quality of artworks created is in a desirable level. The main and most important issue to us was to offer a delicate and artistic view of the religion.
What we remarkably achieved here was gathering Iranian and international artists and redefining concepts of justice and compassion to which every artist emphasizes as global issues. Having artworks created based on said concepts was the significant point accomplished within this event.” He added.
Pointing out remarkable positive accomplishments of such events in adding art to religious instructions, he considered achieving more than 70 percent of objectives predicted for this event a major success.