Alsharq If you are unable to travel for any reason, where do you plan to spend the weekend? How are you going to spend this summer vacation with family? Are you planning to spend the vacation by visiting different restaurants and supermarkets or visiting your extended family? If you are able to travel, why do you select foreign destinations instead of resorts within the Kingdom? Hope officials of the recreation authority and domestic tourism agencies would ponder over these questions before approving or adding any new programs for summer festivals across the country. The most important question is whether these officials think the programs of the summer festivals last year were successful in achieving the set objectives. If so, what were the criteria for declaring those programs successful? Many families and individuals have expressed their disappointment at those programs as they saw repetition of the same events, giving them misery instead of happiness. People are fed up with monotonous programs and they do not have any choice except spending time visiting supermarkets. Even people who visit summer resorts inside the Kingdom spend part of their time at coastal areas and the rest in supermarkets to escape from the scorching heat. The problem is we do not have any entertainment centers or permanent art galleries outside campuses for members of the general public to visit them during vacations to develop their hobbies and skills such as Arabic calligraphy or painting. If any of us wants to learn sculpture and decoration and develop skills in that field, we don't have a center to teach the art, which can be used to beautify our surroundings. Our ladies want to learn the art of cooking but we don't have a center or academy to teach the culinary art. We also lack academies to teach music or how to play various musical instruments. Although Saudi drama presentations have received many accolades at international cultural festivals, we don't have a specialized academy to teach how to direct a drama, make a film or to develop the capabilities of actors and train them to excel in the film industry. Saudi Arabia does not have a film academy to teach those interested in the field and develop talents required for film making such as script and dialogue writing and how to convert a story or novel into a screen play. We have several painters who honed their skills by attending institutes in foreign countries. We need academies to teach and develop skills of artists. Art is an expression of human creativity and is considered an inspiring cultural form. Some psychologists have considered it as an essential factor of life like water and food. People will express their creativity by writing poems, through paintings and colors and through impressive musical notes that excel thousands of words. Many others express themselves through literary works. All these art forms depend largely on the lightness of the spirit and imagination. All forms of art including paintings, sculptures, pottery, embroidery, cooking, calligraphy, writing, music, drama, cinema and television soaps have been part and parcel of human life since time immemorial as they highlight human presence and reflect their identity and culture. The recreation authority should carry out its mission with a high degree of standard giving it wider dimensions, providing innovative thoughts and making use of the Kingdom's rich art forms as art can leave a great impact on the minds of individuals beyond entertainment and recreation. It's a good means to mold our behavior with a high sense of imagination. People have great expectations about our tourism festivals and they will not be satisfied with the traditional programs and will not accept dates and mango festivals as entertainment programs. I believe that if the authorities had given fine arts more space we would not have seen half of our tourists going abroad or the remaining half would not spend their vacation in supermarkets and restaurants.
