JEDDAH — Minister of Culture Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan has directed the ministry to establish arts academies as part of the Quality of Life Program initiatives. This is in implementation of the directives of the Saudi leadership in building and developing human beings, and is in line with the ministry's vision and initiatives to contribute to the Kingdom's Vision 2030. Prince Badr stressed that the investment in capacity building is one of the most important elements of encouraging the cultural sector, which enjoys unlimited support from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense. The minister noted the Kingdom is rich in diverse arts, talents and artistic production, pointing out that the arts academies will be the beginning of a new era to obtain academic qualifications in arts within the Kingdom, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. In the first phase, two art academies will be established, of which the first one will be specialized in heritage, traditional arts and crafts, and applications for this will start receiving in the autumn of 2020 with a target of 1,000 students and trainees in the long and short-term programs. The second academy, which will be dedicated to music, will have the capacity to enroll 1,000 students and trainees, starting the year 2021. These academies are part of the 27 initiatives announced by the Ministry of Culture as a first package, in an effort to provide the cultural sector with distinctive outputs. The ministry has held several workshops aimed at enhancing capacity building in the cultural sector with the participation of both the Saudi and international officials, experts and specialists. It also conducted a comprehensive study focusing on the supply and demand in the Saudi cultural market, and the study underscored the need to supply academically qualified cadres to the cultural sectors.
