ArtDayMe : We are publishing a reflection by Mojdeh Tabatabaei, founder and director of Mojdeh Gallery and President of the Tehran Gallery Owners Association, on Tehran Art Month. The inaugural edition of Tehran Art Month took place across Tehran from 21 August to 11 September 2026, filling the capital with exhibitions and artistic events.

The Full Text by Mojdeh Tabatabaei:

“Tehran Art Month” was the result of a collective effort to shape a shared experience of art across the city. During this event, galleries affiliated with the Tehran Gallery Owners Association presented curated exhibitions within a designated period, coming together to offer a diverse range of artistic perspectives and narratives throughout the city.

Alongside its efforts to pursue the professional interests and demands of its members, the Tehran Gallery Owners Association, as a professional body, considers itself equally committed to creating opportunities for initiatives of this kind, fostering collaboration and collective engagement.

On the one hand, the event provided an opportunity to strengthen connections between galleries and their audiences; on the other, it sought to take art beyond the confines of individual galleries and make it part of the city's shared public experience.

“Tehran Art Month” is founded on the idea that the collective presence of galleries can generate opportunities and capacities that no single gallery could create on its own: opportunities for dialogue, discovery, viewing and experiencing art on an urban scale.

If we view galleries solely through the lens of the art market, we overlook a significant part of their role. Before being venues for the buying and selling of artworks, galleries are cultural institutions that contribute to the production of meaning, the formation of contemporary art's collective memory, and the creation of connections between artists, artworks and society.

Their responsibilities, therefore, extend beyond the walls of the gallery and are defined in relation to the broader cultural life of the city.

Through this event, art became part of the everyday experience of city residents. The aim was never simply to increase visitor numbers; rather, it was to open up opportunities for encounters with art among those who might not previously have considered themselves its direct audience.

Every exhibition can become the starting point for an encounter, a question or a conversation. Together, these encounters can become part of the city's cultural memory.

This synergy, while strengthening the professional community, also created opportunities to expand audiences and cultivate a culture of art appreciation. It clearly demonstrated that cultural development depends more on collaboration and a shared sense of responsibility than on competition.

From this perspective, the success of “Tehran Art Month” cannot be measured solely by visitor numbers or artwork sales.

The significance of this event lies in its ability to strengthen trust and cooperation among members of the professional visual arts community, while reinforcing the conviction that cultural development is the outcome of collective action and sustained participation.

Collective events become lasting when they move beyond being temporary occasions and evolve into cultural traditions.

The hope is that “Tehran Art Month” will be more than just an event: that it will mark the beginning of sustained collaboration, mutual trust and shared responsibility, and represent a step towards ensuring that galleries, alongside their professional roles, make a lasting contribution to the cultural life of Tehran.”