Saudi Arabia is enacting an opening vision culture plan of economy diversification pursuit and petroleum income dependency cessation, as the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 vision. Leading it is a mission which blends regional heritage and global art styles and invites the country to become a new center of world creativity.
One of the pillars of the push is growing the international festival and event calendar that is happening across the Kingdom. Saudi Comic Con and the Red Sea International Film Festival, for example, have twice a year brought producers, artists, and cinemagoers from across the globe to facilitate cross-cultural co-operation and put Saudi Arabia on the map for creative industries globally.
Government involvement has also increased in terms of setting new institutions and programs to offer extensions of aid. Saudi Arts Council, Ministry of Culture, and the like offer aid in terms of training, grants, and exhibition space for local artists. It also makes it easier to arrange cooperation with foreign organizations for them. This investment will create a culture of innovation and throw open windows of opportunity for creatives working across—and even beyond—national boundaries.
New law has also helped the creative industry even further by further safeguarding intellectual property and allowing enormous artistic freedom of interpretation in phases. Photography as a medium has also made giant strides into the limelight, as has contemporary art, performance, and new media, and they have introduced additional styles and voices with even more room in which to bring their own contribution into the kingdom’s cultural heritage.
New media are the heroes that have led this kind of change more than any other factor. Social websites and online galleries give Saudi artists a platform where they can market themselves prior to international markets, exchange information among themselves, and build professional networks worldwide. New media offer new talent greater exposure in the sense that it offers more of a rate of cultural exchange.
Heritage practices are part of cultural strategy. Conservation and restoration of Diriyah’s major archaeological sites serve the Kingdom’s purpose to recall Arabian and Islamic heritage. By reusing themes and motifs from history in new environments, Saudi Arabia provides a cultural design with richness of the past and novelty of the day mixed.
All of these combined are reshaping the Kingdom’s global face. Through continuous investment in sites of cultural heritage, foreign cooperation, and web mobilization, Saudi Arabia is establishing an inclusive cultural presence honoring its heritage but adopting cooperative modus operandi, bringing in a new era to Saudi cultural evolution.
