Riyadh, 28th November 2024 – In the presence of Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Minister of Culture, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture signed a cooperation agreement with The King’s Foundation to participate in the Year of Handicrafts 2025 initiative through the Foundation’s School of Traditional Arts. The signing ceremony took place on the sidelines of the Saudi International Handicrafts Week Exhibition (Benan), which is currently being held at the Roshan Front in Riyadh. The Ministry was represented at the signing by the Deputy Minister of Culture Hamed bin Mohammed Fayez, while the Foundation was represented by Dr. Khaled Omar Azzam, Director of the King Charles School of Traditional Arts at The King’s Foundation.
The agreement aims to revive and promote handicrafts in the Kingdom throughout the year 2025. It involves collaboration to prepare and implement a series of training programs in the field of crafts in several Saudi regions. A key component of the agreement is the launch of the “Regeneration of the Crafts of Saudi Arabia” program, which will commence in early January 2025. Under this program, the School of Traditional Arts at The King’s Foundation will develop a customized program and execute training initiatives focused on design and crafts. The primary goal is to regenerate and renew Saudi craft traditions across different regions of the Kingdom.
The King’s Foundation is a charitable educational institution established by His Majesty King Charles III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, formerly known as the Prince of Wales, in 1986. It aims to teach and demonstrate the principles of urban design and traditional architecture, emphasizing the importance of placing the people and communities involved at the center of the design process. The Foundation’s School of Traditional Arts has given great importance to traditional arts and skills through graduate programs and training courses in the creative artistic practice of traditional arts.
The agreement constitutes a strategic implementation of the Ministry of Culture’s commitment to fostering international cultural exchange, which represents a core objective within the comprehensive National Culture Strategy under the umbrella of Saudi Vision 2030. Through this agreement, the Ministry seeks to support the Year of the Handicrafts 2025 activities by implementing targeted training and development programs in design and craftsmanship for Saudi artisans. This initiative is part of the Ministry’s broader efforts to enhance craft production within the Kingdom.
