(Photo by Marzieh Soleimani)

The Fifth Fajr Visual Arts Festival is underway at Imam Ali (AS) Museum in Tehran.

Tehran Symphonic OrchestraTo Perform at Fajr Festival

Tehran Symphonic Orchestra is to present performances at the 28th edition of Fajr International Music Festival in Tehran’s Vahdat Hall.
The Orchestra, led by Nader Mortezapour, will go on the stage at the closing day of this year’s festival on February 18.
A chorus conducted by Razmik Ohanian is to accompany the orchestra during the program which will be performed in two parts, according to Press TV.
The first section will present some famous pieces created by the world’s veteran musicians and composers such as Beethoven, Max Bruch, Alexander Borodin and Cécile Chaminade.
Traditional Iranian vocalist Salar Aqili will perform at the second section of the program which is scheduled to present some Persian classical music pieces.
Tehran Symphony Orchestra was founded originally as “Municipality Symphony Orchestra” in 1933 in Tehran by Gholam Hossein Minbashian.
The Orchestra in its modern form was established by Parviz Mahmoud.

In Art Galleries

Three galleries of the Iranian Artists Forum are currently hosting an exhibition of sculptures on air pollution in Tehran.
The sculptures created by 70 artists have been put on display at the Mirmiran Gallery, the Paeez Gallery and the Zemestan Gallery.
Entitled ‘Oxygen’, the exhibition runs until February 18 at the galleries, which can be found on Musavi St. north of Taleqani Ave.
Sculptures by Saeid Lazarjani will go on display in an exhibition at the Sareban Gallery from February 15-25, Mehr News Agency said.
Lazarjani created the sculptures from boughs and roots of trees. The gallery is located at 8 Mehmandust St., off Shahid Beheshti Ave.
The Elaheh Gallery will be playing host to an exhibition of paintings by Maryam Ebtekar from February 15 to 25. The gallery is located at 6 Golfam St. off Africa Ave.

Persian Jewelry on Show

A collection of jewelry bearing motifs inspired by the Persian garden will be showcased in an art show at Tehran’s Golestan Gallery later this week.
The collection has been created by Bahram Dashtinejad and Toktam Fazel, a jeweler couple that always draws inspiration from the Iranian garden for their works.
“As in our previous exhibitions, we have focused on the Persian garden to create this collection,” Dashtinejad told ISNA.
“Using the Persian garden motifs is not something new in our work, but this collection has been created in a way that will amaze visitors from the beginning,” he added.
Over 100 works, mostly silver, will be put on display in the exhibition, which will open on February 15.
“The compositions and ideas used in the works give a visitor a new feel for the jewelry. In this way, we have taken the hidden and obvious concepts of the Persian garden into consideration in the artworks,” he stated.
“For example, the simorgh (the mystic Persian bird), the life tree, and the cypress bird are some of the clear concepts we used in the works, while the maps of Persian gardens and architectural designs of the structures are the hidden concepts which have been regarded in the backgrounds of the works,” Dashtinejad said.
Dashtinejad is an electrical engineer. Due to his interest in the Persian miniature, he began to seek a career in jewelry making.
His colleague, Fazel, has studied stage design and then began her career in jewelry in 2004.
The Golestan Gallery is located at #42 Kamasai St., Darrous neighborhood.

Imam Khomeini’s Book onIslamic Awakening Released

A book has been unveiled in Afghanistan on Imam Khomeini’s role in the Islamic awakening.
The preface to the book reads as, “Only a portion of the great influence of Imam Khomeini’s thoughts and ideas on today’s Islamic Awakening movements in the world of Islam and Arab nations has been revealed,” IBNA said.
The book covers a range of topics on the impact of the Islamic Revolution on the Islamic Awakening movement like Imam Khomeini’s discourse, discourse of the Islamic Revolution and Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, common discourse principles and factors, the impact of Iran’s Islamic Revolution on the Islamic Awakening movement, instances of the effect of the Islamic Revolution on Muslims, and the desired world system based on Islamic Revolution views.
The book has been published by the Culture Center of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Kabul.

Oscar Wilde’s Poem For Sale at Bonhams

The manuscript of one of Oscar Wilde’s most original and beautiful poems, ‘Les Ballons’, is to be sold on May 8 in Part II of the sale of ‘The Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets’ at Bonhams, New Bond Street.
It is the only known copy of the entire poem in Wilde’s hand and is estimated at £14,000-16,000. The poem, which was published in 1887, is a perfect fusion of the two artistic styles most associated with Wilde--the Aesthetic Movement and Literary Decadence.
It describes the poet’s response to watching children flying balloons in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris where he lived from late January to mid-May 1883 on his return from a successful year long lecture tour of America and Canada, AP wrote.
Wilde started work on the poem while he was still in Paris, though it is uncertain when and where the manuscript in the sale was written. The wording is very similar to that of the final published text although Wilde had yet to give it a title.
The first verse sets the tone and style, “Against the shifting agate skies The light and luminous balloons Dip and drift like satin moons Drift like silken butterflies.”
When Wilde wrote to the illustrator, Bernard Partridge, about the poem he specified that the children should look Japanese. Japan was a major inspiration for the writers and artists of the Aesthetic Movement as well as a significant influence on French Impressionist painter such as Claude Monet of whom Wilde was a great admirer.

George Washington’s Farewell Address on Exhibit

A special three-day exhibition, ‘From New York to the White House, New York Residents Who Became President’, will open February 15 in the lobby of the New York State Museum.
The exhibit features the original draft of George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address, penned is his hand, ArtDaily reported.
On display through February 17, the exhibition will honor the nation’s first president as well as New York’s political leaders who rose to the presidency, including Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The exhibition will include several important artifacts from the George Washington Collection at the New York State Library, including an original draft of George Washington’s Farewell Address, penned in his hand, which was sent to Alexander Hamilton for comment and revision on May 15, 1796.
It was rescued from the fire that ravaged the State Capitol in 1911. One of Washington ’s dress swords will also be on display. According to Washington family tradition, the sword was presented to Washington by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia .
The sword was purchased by the State of New York directly from Washington ’s family in 1871 and is depicted in the Washington portrait that hangs in the United States House of Representatives.
The exhibition will also include pages from an extremely rare volume entitled “A Representation of the Cloathing of His Majesty’s Household and of all the Forces upon the Establishments of Great Britain and Ireland , 1742”.
This collection of colored engravings of British military uniforms was given to Washington in 1787.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

Poverty is the grand death.