Riyadh Art

The Riyadh Art Program is one of the largest public art programs in the world. It was launched in 2019 under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and under the leadership and supervision of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz, crown prince, prime minister, and chairman of the board of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City. The program aims to transform the city of Riyadh into an open art exhibition that blends tradition with contemporaneity, enriches the cultural life of the community, unleashes artistic expression, and stimulates the creative economy of the city.

The program was adopted by the Giga Projects Committee, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, with three main objectives: Contributing to the development of a vibrant community and a thriving economy by enriching the lives of residents and visitors with art, ranking Riyadh among the top hundred global cities, which boosts investment in Riyadh's creative economy, and enhancing Riyadh's status as a global city, making it a creative and cultural hub.

It also aims to create an appropriate artistic environment in the capital by showcasing diverse artworks by local and international artists, empowering national and global talents, and promoting community values, cultural interaction, knowledge exchange, and creative collaboration within the community.

The program includes thirteen projects covering all parts of the city and its main elements and components. Additionally, the Noor Riyadh Festival and the Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium are held annually.

The program aims to transform public spaces in the capital into artistic areas, allowing for artistic expression and stimulating creative contributions from all segments of society, in addition to developing the city's cultural and creative economy.

The program offers a variety of options that suit everyone to be a source of inspiration that speaks to their creativity. The program aims for the capital to become an open art gallery, with more than one thousand artworks in its facilities and neighborhoods, through thirteen programs, namely:

Urban Flow Project: This integrates public art into the fabric of the network of pedestrian pathways and bridges throughout the city, encouraging residents to explore the city and experience art from a new perspective by transforming the current vehicle-based transportation system that shapes the city into a future where people rely on public transport. It encourages pedestrians and cyclists to take to the streets and use the metro to move around a city that has become a canvas for creativity.

Welcoming Gateways Project: It is a series of massive artistic gateways set up on the main roads leading to Riyadh and its entrances. These gateways reflect the cultural ambiance of the city. The gateways represent the spirit of the city, which blends art, architecture, and creativity as fundamental components of a vibrant global city.

The project aims to develop contemporary gateways for Riyadh that welcome arriving and departing travelers and citizens.

Jewels in Riyadh Project: This transforms the capital's jewels into an open art gallery for Contemporary Public Art in collaboration with a selection of elite artists. It includes twenty-four artistic works embodying the ability of contemporary sculpture to turn spaces into creative canvases.

The artworks are designed with standards and measurements that suit each location, aiming to elevate the quality of public spaces in Riyadh City and to celebrate its heritage and culture.

Joyous Gardens Project: The Joyous Gardens include spaces that contribute to providing a healthy environment and a vibrant, civilized life for the residents of Riyadh City.

The playgrounds are distinguished by an artistic design that reinvents traditional play elements and seating areas, transforming Riyadh's parks and green spaces into vibrant, inspiring educational destinations that stimulate creativity and support community well-being.

Urban Art Lab Project: More than four pavilions with interactive art installations in eight different locations. Each pavilion includes one digital artwork and a cultural program. It will be a blend of a productive workshop enhanced with an exhibition and an artist's studio, in addition to open-air classrooms, offices, and spaces for lectures and workshops.

Garden City Project: It's a park that offers a creative experience for an enjoyable time and stands as an icon of twenty-first-century artistic sculpture gardens. It allows city residents to delve into the concepts of art, technology, and environmental engagement, creating an environment for interactive and contemporary arts beyond the confines of museum walls. It's accessible to everyone, allowing for a broad creative experience.

Art in Transit: Artworks showcased within Riyadh's metro and public transportation system to offer delightful journeys at every stop. The program integrates public art into the essential fabric of Riyadh's metro, the public transportation system, the rapid bus line, and the infrastructure. This aims to create beautiful and unique stations featuring public artistic works and interventions, offering delightful experiences and journeys for passengers.

Riyadh Icon Project: It represents a visible symbol of the cultural aspirations within Vision 2030 and a new era for the Saudi capital, stimulating creativity and artistic movement, encouraging self-expression, and fostering an inclusive culture.

Art on the Move Project: The expansive public artworks are strategically placed at major intersections, roundabouts, and bridges to offer a delightful daily transit experience.

A massive series of distinctive artistic interventions are designed to support pedestrian wayfinding while navigating Riyadh City. The program will integrate artworks into the city's core infrastructure, such as bridges, and disperse them across main road intersections and railways, ensuring a delightful daily transit experience for all Riyadh residents.

The Hidden River – Art Trail Project: Artistic pathways that invite exploration of the city and its valleys. They encourage outdoor activities and support health and well-being.

The Hidden River – Art Trail Project will create artistic paths stretching across the valleys and the city, comprising permanent sculptures crafted by the Tuwaiq Sculpture artists. Both residents and visitors will participate in this experience, illustrating the integration of the Riyadh Art projects. The Hidden River – Art Trail will provide opportunities to experience natural landscapes anew, embrace outdoor living, and encourage people to interact and explore.

The Hidden River – The Illuminated Bridges Project: It is one of the elements of The Hidden River – Art Trail, which focuses on lighting up the city's main bridges by designers and artists using the latest lighting art techniques and highlights the structural composition of their creative artworks on the bridge itself, serving as a physical, social, and emotional connector, providing unique and vibrant experiences for everyone.

Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium Project: The Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium is an important annual event in the global art scene. In Riyadh, prominent sculptors from the Kingdom and various countries around the world gather to present creative artworks in a live showcase. Their works are displayed in an accompanying art exhibition in the capital of art, Riyadh. The Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium contributes to creating a community platform that promotes cultural exchange through an interactive program that includes workshops, dialogue sessions, school visits, and live sculpting tours.

Noor Riyadh Festival Project: An annual city-wide light and art festival that fosters creativity, supports talents, and stimulates the creative economy in the Kingdom. The festival offers amazing experiences at multiple locations across the capital and is considered one of the largest light art festivals in the world.

Art and culture reflect the spirit of a city, and that is the basis upon which the Riyadh Art Program was founded. It's an artistic initiative that transforms the entire capital into a creative canvas and an open art gallery to enrich life, encourage creative expression, and support the city's cultural economy.

Through the Community Partnership Program, artists' workshops will move to residential neighborhoods in Riyadh, providing spaces that invite all residents to participate and develop their creative talents by expressing them through art.

Riyadh Art is based on works of high aesthetic standards that combine authenticity and modernity. It contributes to creating an inspiring visual environment for the residents of Riyadh and its visitors. The program is also one of the main components of the city that enriches the artistic and creative movement with activities and projects. This positions Riyadh as a cultural capital that brings together artists and art lovers from inside the Kingdom and beyond to enhance cultural and civilizational exchange at the individual and institutional levels.

The program serves the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 by positioning Riyadh among the leading global capitals and elevating the concept of quality of life therein. Moreover, it contributes to bolstering the national economy by activating it in the fields of tourism, entertainment, and culture, providing thousands of job opportunities, and developing and empowering creative talents.