TEHRAN — Tehran’s autumn arts calendar is bringing together calligraphy, music, photography, documentary cinema and musical theater, with several events this week drawing on the city’s cultural memory and Iran’s literary and artistic heritage.
At the Iran Calligraphy Museum, an exhibition titled “Bar Khat-e Avaz” (“On the Line of Song”) will open Oct. 8, presenting calligraphy and calligraphic paintings inspired by poems by prominent Iranian poet Muhammad-Reza Shafiei Kadkani that were performed by celebrated singer Muhammad-Reza Shajarian.
The exhibition forms part of the Ayin-e Mehr cultural program and the Ayineh-dar-e Douran initiative, which commemorates leading figures from Iran’s Khorasan region. 
The project began with a live calligraphy-painting event at the National Library and Archives of Iran on Sept. 23, Shajarian’s birthday, and will continue through Shafiei Kadkani’s birthday on Oct. 9. 
Artists including Peyman Peyravi, Barbod Yazdani and Gholamhussein Altafi participated in the live creation of works.
The Oct. 8 opening will also feature Khorasani music and a performance combining instrumental music and vocals, with the participation of the House of Music of Iran. A work by veteran painter Hussein Mahjoobi is also due to be unveiled as part of the wider program.
Meanwhile, Tehran Art Week, running Oct. 4-10 across the capital’s 22 municipal districts, is taking art beyond conventional galleries and cultural halls. 
Muhammad Khorasanizadeh, deputy for arts at Tehran’s Cultural and Artistic Organization, said programs would include music, poetry, street theater, specialist workshops and visual-art exhibitions, with an emphasis on public spaces and the city’s nighttime life.
Among the week’s additional events is “Tehran, Beyond the Frames,” a photography exhibition at Sarv Gallery focusing on archival images and memories of Tehran. The exhibition runs Oct. 4-10 and offers a visual account of the capital’s changing urban identity.
Sarv Cultural Center is also screening five documentaries produced by Iran’s Documentary, Experimental and Animation Film Center during the cultural week. 
The program includes “That Man Came by Bus,” “Tehran, a City Without Birds,” “Takeover in Tehran: The Inside Story of the 1979 U.S. Embassy,” “Meydan Bi Hesa (Unfenced Square)” and “Madarehaye Tehran (Orbits of Tehran.” Screenings run through Oct. 10 and are free to the public.
On the stage, director Hussein Parsaei is preparing the musical “Small Expectations,” based on a play by Muhammad-Reza Kouhestani, for Tehran’s Vahdat Hall. 
The production, produced by Emad Ameri, centers on homeless children who continue to hope for a better tomorrow. Ticket sales are scheduled to begin Oct. 10.