AD DIRIYAH, Saudi Arabia: Planned to launch in 2022, construction has begun on the Ad Diriyah Art Oasis, the world’s first center for digital arts.
The joint partnership between the Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA) and the Saudi Ministry of Culture will deliver a revolutionary hub dedicated to supporting innovation in the fields of digital art, artificial intelligence and modern technologies.
Located in the heart of Ad Diriyah, the Amedeo Schiattarella-designed Oasis will be part of the 10,000-square meter Al-Bujairi heritage district and will include six art studios, workshops, youth entertainment facilities and a library, as well as workshops and lecture theaters. Together these facilities will form an integrated creative environment for research, development and production for modern digital artists.
The Oasis will offer four main educational tracks:
- arts, artificial intelligence, creative computing, and automatic learning;
- digital arts, photography, production of movies and sound arts;
- graphic design, 3d modelling, animation, and animated graphics; and
- the New Media and Contemporary Art Research Center, an educational program exploring developed cultural contexts in the contemporary world.
The Oasis will also host public events such as an annual international exhibition for arts and artificial intelligence and a series of hackathons focused on the application of the digital arts.
Ad Diriyah Art Oasis will cement Ad Diriyah District’s reputation as a hotspot for contemporary culture, through which the thriving art scene in the Kingdom can be explored, whilst encouraging further investment in science and technology in the area.
The partnership with DGDA forms part of the Ministry of Culture’s ongoing commitment to develop the cultural ecosystem in the Kingdom and provide new platforms for cultural expression, a core part of the country’s cultural transformation under Vision 2030.
