Riyadh Art is one of the four major projects His Royal Highness King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud launched.
Supervised by the Committee of Grand Projects under His Royal Highness’s leadership, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense.
Riyadh, Arabic Al-Riyāḍ, is the capital of Saudi Arabia, with a population of 7.6 million people.
The city Riyadh derives its name from the plural of the Arabic rawḍah, which means gardens or meadows, so named for the natural fertility provided by its location at the time of Wadis Ḥanīfah and Al-Batha.
The magnificent sight of Riyadh from the air, illuminated in the evening by city lights, is nostalgic of its eponymous meadows, a bright sea of lights doting the desert like a fluorescent flower garden has blossomed among its dark contours.
Life in Riyadh revolves around the city’s busy shopping centers, shopping malls in Riyadh, and more than 4,000 mosques.
The city’s central hub and many souks (marketplaces) attract heavy pedestrian traffic, emphasizing its intense vitality. As the residents of a major city in a mainly Muslim country, Riyadh’s inhabitants adhere to the family’s privacy, and recreational activities are often a family affair.
Riyadh Becomes An Open-Air Gallery
The Royal Commission for Riyadh City has transformed the capital into a living canvas, positioning it as a global top-ten city in line with the ambition of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 goals.
Riyadh Art Programs and Events
There are choices for all and inspiration. Ten major programs continue to enchant visitors as the citywide exhibition continues throughout the city, and the two annual festivals cement the vision for Riyadh as a city of culture.
Noor Riyadh, 9 April– 29 May 2021
Noor Riyadh, the new annual festival of light and art, comprises diverse talks, workshops, and events spread across the city.
With numerous public art installations across Riyadh city, ‘Light Upon Light: Light Art since the 1960s’ is a landmark light art exhibition.
Tuwaiq International Sculpture Symposium, 10 November– 2 December 2021
The 22-day Tuwaiq International Sculpture Symposium is a platform for international and Saudi artists to create public sculptures in a live setting.
The program will have 20 international sculptors collaborating to produce a series of permanent public sculptures.
The creative process is open and accessible to the public through events, visits, and talks. At the symposium’s end, the works of the international band of artists will be exhibited for five days before relocation to various outdoor locations across the city.
Urban Art Lab
Four pavilions and four Interactive artworks are planned for eight urban locations. Galleries for well-known artists will be provided in city squares to encourage interaction between artists and citizens.
Each pavilion will include digital artwork and cultural programming, blended as a production atelier, gallery, artist studio, open-air classroom, office, and lecture space.
Joyous Gardens
Joyous Gardens program is designed to provide 200 spaces for creative play with the idea of giving a healthy and vibrant urban life in Riyadh at its core.
It features more than 200 artist-designed playgrounds in small, medium, and large Riyadh parks as dynamic, inspiring, and educational places to encourage creativity adventure, and exploration of the natural world.
Famous artists reinvented 3000 elements of traditional play equipment, such as the slide, climbing frame, roundabout, and swing.
The addition of imaginative sculptural forms offers dynamic seating and creative play. The artistic canopies provide shelter from the elements and a place for building social connections in the true sense of community.
Jewels In Riyadh
These jewels are to be permanent, large-scale, site-specific installations. The planned 15 artworks at 15 locations form an ongoing program to enhance public spaces, celebrate cultural heritage, and contribute to community building.
They are improving residents’ quality of urban life and attracting international tourism. Jewels in Riyadh draw ideas and inspiration from the civic spaces sprawling the city, focusing on the most frequented places of the people.
Welcoming Gateways
The “gates of culture,” a grand series of entrances to Riyadh, heralding it as a city of culture.
Ten welcoming Gateways of Riyadh set the tone at its entrance as a city where its arts and creativity are essential components of a vibrant and inspiring global city.
Art On The Move
This series of 19 specific kinetic art interventions of large-scale, high-impact, and color. Each art designed to support Riyadh’s wayfinding experience will provide a joyful everyday experience.
These will be integrated into the city’s core infrastructure, placed at major road and rail intersections.
Art In Transit
The ‘Art in Transit’ program integrates public art and Riyadh’s Metro and BRT bus systems to create beautiful, distinctive stations.
This innovative Art program fosters interaction among citizens through the expanse of 6 metro lines, 80 stations, three bus terminals, and more than 1,000 stations and stops.
Art and design are working together to provide a layered sense of engagement.
Urban Flow
Urban Flow is about integrating public art into the citywide network of pedestrian walkways and footpaths, allowing citizens to experience art and the city together.
Shifting its focus from a transport system that privileges the car, the city is transitioning to public transportation, encouraging pedestrians and cyclists to use the streets and Metro to experience the capital city’s creative canvas.
The Hidden River, The Illuminated Bridges
Three artists will illuminate key bridges across the city, highlighting the bridge’s structural configuration as the physical, social, and emotional connector to the landscape—a distinctive, vibrant experience for everybody.
The Hidden River – Art Trail
Artists promote the community’s artisanal and artistic spirit while interpreting Riyadh’s wadis’ unique history, heritage, and ecology.
With more than 100 artworks, the Hidden River art trail explores and reimagines traditional craft-based techniques at 5 locations.
Garden City
Garden City is a sculpture park for the 21st century, driving new interpretations of art, environment, technology, and environmental engagements to experience interactive and contemporary art outside the museum.
It is accessible to all as a platform for small—and medium-sized permanent and movable outdoor art pieces programmed as part of the park’s creative experience.
Riyadh Icon
One location, one icon, the ‘Riyadh Icon,’ is a dedicated creation of the 21st century, a distinctive icon for Riyadh and Saudi Arabia. The ambitious international commission is the physical manifestation of the cultural aspirations of Vision 2030.
The Riyadh Icon will usher in the Saudi era and celebrate a global community that sparks creativity, ignites an art movement, encourages self-expression, and creates an inclusive culture.
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