Alsharqiya Gets Creative Initiative

'Alsharqiya Gets Creative' Initiative is a creative, cultural, and community-driven program launched by the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran, located in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The initiative promotes the concept of creativity by engaging creative and innovative residents of the Eastern Province, to make the province a hub for creativity at the level of Saudi Arabia. This initiative runs annually in November. Its first edition was launched in 2020, followed by the second in 2021, the third in 2022, and the fourth in 2023. The first three editions coincided with Ithra's Creativity Conference 'Tanween.'

The initiative aims to achieve several goals, including making the Eastern Province a destination and a capital of creativity across Saudi Arabia, enhancing and activating the creative aspects of individuals within the community, and transforming economic and social sectors. The creative economy plays a significant role in economic and social progress. It also creates job opportunities that enable creatives to share their ideas with the community through a creative platform, helping to explore new ideas and innovative thinking methods while contributing to sustainability in the fields of thought, culture, and creativity.

The initiative offers three tracks where creatives share their cultural, artistic, and civilizational works according to these tracks: The Programs Track includes content writing, creative models, cultural guidance, website development, and challenges. The Production Track focuses on designing tangible products. The Education Track encompasses virtual seminars, workshops, hackathons, and educational materials.

The initiative receives contributions from several sectors, including the arts, sports, social, commerce, and logistics.

The first edition of 'Alsharqiya Gets Creative' Initiative in 2020 targeted several cities and governorates, including Dammam, al-Khobar, al-Ahsa, al-Qatif, Abqaiq, al-Jubail, Hafr al-Batin, al-Nairyah , and al-Khafji. The initiative involved participation from approximately sixty-six governmental and private entities. Around fifty male and female educators from the education sector contributed to this initiative, in addition to several universities, colleges, institutes, and academies, which worked on developing nearly ten diverse creative fields, such as product design, communication, content creation, interactive activities, photography, arts, fashion and crafts, architecture, and food design.

The second edition of 'Alsharqiya Gets Creative' Initiative in 2021 focused on the Eastern Province, including its cities and governorates. Approximately 150 educational, cultural, artistic, and economic entities participated, and their collective output was estimated at around two hundred creative products across the province.

The third edition of the initiative began on October 30, 2022, coinciding with the fifth edition of 'Tanween Season.' Approximately 250 governmental, private, and nonprofit entities participated through the initiative's outlined tracks. The initiative featured around ten diverse creative fields, targeting young talents with innovative ideas. It involved nearly five hundred activities in ten cities across Saudi Arabia, including creative workshops and discussion panels in fields such as culture, art, theater, music, science, engineering, sports, and culinary, along with creative art exhibitions. The number of participants and interactions on social media platforms reached about four million.

The fourth edition of 'Alsharqiya Gets Creative' Initiative was launched on November 7, 2023, featuring more than 1,500 activities across the cities and governorates of the Eastern Province. These activities included sports, knowledge, diverse entertainment activities, and awareness campaigns promoting creativity within various community segments and contributing to enhancing creative and artistic awareness, including performing arts. It featured sixteen art exhibitions, over five hundred workshops, two hundred discussion panels, and various programs across multiple fields.