DOWNLOAD PROGRAM
DOWNLOAD PROGRAMAt the heart of the AlUla Future Culture Summit is a commitment to promote collaboration among artists, thought leaders, and creatives from all corners of the world. This unique gathering of experts will facilitate creative dialogue and cultural perspectives in art, design, cultural policy, music, and performing arts.
The Summit aims to explore the potential for arts and culture to address key global challenges and drive positive societal change. Participants are encouraged to explore the intersections of their respective artistic traditions, creating new iterations that reflect the global diversity of creative expression.
The Royal Commission for AlUla, in partnership with the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Culture, will host the summit, nestled within the verdant oasis of AlUla, a blossoming cultural crossroads.
The AlUla Future Culture Summit invites you to explore innovative art and landscape installations, exhibitions, and a dynamic program of panel discussions, interactive workshops, and artistic performances. AlUla Future Culture Summit will serve as a shared space for influential leaders in the cultural space to expand horizons for arts, culture, and the creative industries.
Beyond art, The Summit theme explores landscapes from both literal and metaphorical perspectives, looking at humanity’s relationship with the natural world, the real and the imagined, and the landscapes and communities of culture and nature. Discussion and debate are shaped around three overlapping pillars: Fertile Terrains, which explores innovation and regeneration in culture, Creative Grounds, which looks at global creativity, and Impact Harvests, where we discuss how communities can be empowered. The Summit recognizes the role of cultural exchange in fostering understanding and tolerance among different communities.
New cultural infrastructure is being developed across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from museums and festivals to public art, and globally there is a growing audience for experiences of art in remote and natural landscapes. Panels under this pillar consider how communities can respond and shape culture. How can human and non-human interests be protected from the potential negative impacts of this rapid expansion, and how should urban, rural, and natural environments be regenerated for positive social outcomes? Discussions will address how creatives can offer new non-exploitative, artistic understandings of nature and its needs, and how culture can enable a more harmonious relationship between humans and the natural world.
The shift to knowledge economies in KSA and the region is an aspiration mirrored worldwide, from traditional industrial nations to the emerging economies of the global south. Panels under this pillar explore how to support creative industries, use the arts to improve skills in our culture sector, and decide which traditional skills (arts, design, craft, and music) should be kept or revived and which new skills should be taught as societies progress. This session will also address the policies needed to grow the cultural economy and boost creative entrepreneurship.
The spread of cultural production globally, facilitated by digital media, has opened new opportunities for cultural exchange and creativity. But it can also dilute local culture. Cultural communication and new cultural assets like arts districts and public art initiatives can strengthen community identity and belonging. In contrast, some artists and practitioners resist using culture for broader social or economic impact, questioning whether art should exist for its own sake, or if there is also opportunity to provide new content for digital platforms, or to provide spaces for community bonding. This session will explore these issues and look at whether grassroots initiatives and entrepreneurship are the future of cultural development or whether central governments will still have a central role.
AlUla is a place of extraordinary natural and human heritage with more than 200,000 years of human history at the crossroads of civilsations. The vast area, covering 22,561km², includes a lush oasis valley, towering sandstone mountains and ancient cultural heritage sites dating back thousands of years to when the Lihyan and Nabataean kingdoms reigned.
The most well-known and recognised site in AlUla is Hegra, Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site. A 52-hectare ancient city, Hegra was the principal southern city of the Nabataean Kingdom and is comprised of more than 100 well-preserved tombs, many with elaborate facades cut out of the sandstone outcrops surrounding the walled urban settlement.
In addition to Hegra, AlUla is also home to ancient Dadan, the capital of the Dadan and Lihyan Kingdoms and considered to be one of the most developed 1st millennium BCE cities of the Arabian Peninsula, and Jabal Ikmah, an open air library of hundreds of inscriptions and writings in many different languages.
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The inaugural AlUla Future Culture Summit is invite only.
For enquiries, please contact us at publicrelations@rcu.gov.sa
To access all speakers and details, download the attendees app
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