A plan is under way to have prisoners display their artwork at two major projects that have recently been approved between the government and the private sector. Dr. Ali Bin Hussein Al-Harthi, Director General of Prisons, on Wednesday signed a 25-year agreement with the Jeddah Mayoralty and the Rass Assalaam Holding Company to jointly execute two projects entitled Creativity and Hope Center and Sahat Alwatan (Home Square). Jeddah Mayor Adel Faqih, who signed the agreement on behalf of government, said the two projects will display the artwork of prisoners. He said this would help in the rehabilitation of prisoners and give them a chance to acquire artistic and vocational skills. This would allow them to successfully return to society. Faqih said the agreement is “a great model of cooperation and integration between government sectors and the private sector for the welfare of the country and its citizens”. “It's a three-dimensional relationship that aims to develop municipal parks and facilities, a task that was an exclusively municipal one before,” the mayor said. The prisoners will set up a 300-meter long and six-meter wide mural that relates to the history of the country, including the unification and subsequent developments, the mayor said. Prince Saud Bin Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Chairman of the Rass Assalaam Holding Company, said the Creativity and Hope Center to be established in northern Jeddah, will involve periodic exhibitions, lectures and a bi-annual journal that will conduct research into art and society's response to artwork. It will be constructed on more than 14,000 sq. meters and will contain a vast green park and a building that will have a multi-purpose hall on the ground floor, meeting and lecture rooms and workshop spaces. He said the Sahat Alwatan project will be executed on 60,000 sq. meters at a cost of more than SR12 million. It will contain artistic sand works about the Kingdom and various facilities and fountains. He said the projects will contribute to create awareness of art from an Islamic perspective, will help beautify the city, and to display the skills of gifted artists. Meanwhile, Al-Harthi revealed that the prison administration plans to set up projects for prisoners at all industrial cities in the Kingdom. The projects are aimed at helping prisoners get vocational and industrial jobs through practical training. It would also help the private sector to increase its rate of Saudization, he said.
