Saudi Arabia has made another official move to boost its cultural landscape, today announcing the formation of new councils that will work to enhance the country's food, theatre, design, architecture, art and film scenes.
The new bodies will be overseen by Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah, who tweeted that "this is the beginning of a new and important stage in the history of our culture", thanking the country's leadership "for their support of culture and intellectuals".
An announcement from the Saudi Press Agency said that the new councils will work across "literature, publishing and translation; museums, heritage, films and libraries; architecture and design," as well as "music, theatre, performing arts, visual arts, culinary arts and fashion".
The cultural scenes of the country have already seen a boost thanks to the 'seasons' events taking over each city: with three-day dance music festival MDL beast in Riyadh creating a "shock and awe effect" that drew a crowd of 200,000; and with Al Ula's Winter At Tantora event bringing in names such as Andrea Bocelli and Yanni.
The film industry saw an initial boost when a movie theatre opened in Riyadh for the first time in 35 years back in April 2018. It's forecast that around 45 movie theatres will be open in Saudi by the end of this year, and the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah this March will strengthen the independent movie scene not just in the country, but in the region.
On the TV front, on Tuesday it was announced that MBC, based primarily in Dubai, would set up a headquarters in Riyadh's new Media City project:
وقعت مع أخي وليد آل إبراهيم، رئيس مجلس إدارة @mbc_group، المجموعة الأضخم في العالم العربي، اتفاقية لإنشاء مقر جديد للمجموعة في #المدينة_الإعلامية. pic.twitter.com/aYJxskb45e
— بدر بن عبدالله بن فرحان آل سعود (@BadrFAlSaud) February 4, 2020
Saudi Arabia has been going through a transformation of its economy under Vision 2030, an overarching social and economic agenda driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Weaning its economy off oil, part-privatising state entities and opening its non-oil sector for investment are among the key pillars of Saudi Arabia’s reform programme.
