RIYADH — Minister of Culture Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan announced the establishment of a foundation called Thunaiyat Ad-Diriyah. The Minister of Culture is the chairman of the Board of Directors of the foundation while Ayah Habib Al-Bakri has been named as its CEO. The foundation is concerned with contemporary arts and was designed to be responsible for organizing biennale in the Kingdom on an annual basis. The biennale will be on a rotation basis with an exhibition of contemporary arts in a year and an exhibition of Islamic arts the following year. The first session of the biennale, dedicated to an exhibition of contemporary art, will be held in 2021 while the second session of Islamic arts will be held in 2022. Through holding the biennale, the foundation will work to achieve the goals set by the Ministry of Culture's vision and orientations related to contemporary arts platforms and develop them to the level where the Kingdom is all set to become a regional and global center for arts and culture. The foundation will hold the biennale alternately between the contemporary and Islamic art exhibitions on an annual basis in order to add diversity to the biennale and to create a larger space for Saudi artists, of different creative levels, through a prestigious art platform that allows them to display their work and interact with their peers from international artists. The biennale represents an innovative platform that allows the global audience to view Saudi art and cultural performances in its depth and diversity. The biennale is one of the initiatives announced by the Ministry of Culture at the launching ceremony of its vision and orientations within the first initiatives package, which is a global art event aimed at motivating and empowering Saudi artists in the fields of visual arts. The establishment of the foundation came as an essential and necessary step to organize the international biennale that meets the aspirations of the Ministry of Culture and achieves the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.
