About Us

Artebox is a specialized encyclopedia of Iranian culture, literature, science, and art. Arte’s unique collection consists of the personal accounts of Iran’s most prominent cultural and scientific practitioners. Our interviews, in a total of 246 videos conducted in English and Persian,  offer visual autobiographies that stand to benefit Iranian society and its scholars.

Our Objectives, and Perspective :     

History is the process by which humankind acquires self-consciousness through its engagement with the past.  The study of the past offers us comprehension not only of the judgments our predecessors made but why they made them.  Arte’s one-on-one conversations with leading figures in the arts and sciences provide direct insights into these forces shaping their lives and fields without the restrictions and mediations of traditional historiography.

Today’s globalizing world has expanded the channels by which nations share their cultural exports. We believe Iran’s contributions to our small planet are significant, yet these remain largely unknown due to an accident of geography. Our goal is to narrate the lives of the noblemen and women behind these contributions.  Not only have these individuals escaped the attention of the wider world, but they are also increasingly unrecognizable to many Iranians, especially younger  Iranians and those raised in the diaspora.

Our History:

Preliminary works on Arte Encyclopedia started in September 2015 and accumulated over the years. Arte started by introducing 95 artists from the field of visual arts and gradually extended its scope to  53 musicians, 73 cinematographers and theatre artists, and 25 individuals from the fields of literature and humanities. By 2019, our collection covered 246 projects. As of the summer of 2021, 105 projects have been uploaded on the website, 54 are being edited and 87 are in line to be edited.