DHAHRAN – Dr. Stefano Carboni, CEO of the Saudi Museums Commission, said that the commission will establish museums in Dammam, Abha, Hail and Al-Qassim within the coming two years. He said this while addressing the three-day International Conference on Islamic Art, which concluded at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) here. Dr. Carboni said that the commission will set up museums in Najran and Arar by the year 2030. He also spoke about the ongoing museum project in Diriyah neighborhood. "The new museum will be opened within six months and that will be a preliminary version of the Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the Project to Develop the New Neighborhood in Diriyah. The Black Gold Museum will be opened in Riyadh shortly thereafter, and this will be in partnership With the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center," he added. The conference with the theme of "Mosque: Innovation in object, form and function" aims to address the historic evolution, meanings and functions of the mosque, and it was organized jointly by Ithra and the Abdullatif Al Fozan Award for Mosque Architecture. Under the patronage of Eastern Province Emir Prince Saud Bin Naif, Prince Sultan Bin Salman, advisor to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and chairman of the board of trustees of Abdullatif Al Fozan Award for Mosque Architecture, inaugurated the conference. Several high-ranking officials and specialists in Islamic art and architecture addressed the conference during which they shed light on the elements of architecture and antiquities of mosques and their development through the ages, in addition to familiarizing the Islamic eras that saw the construction of mosques in unique artistic and architectural styles. In his speech Abdullah Al Fozan, chairman of the board of trustees of Al Fozan for Community Service, said that mosques constitute a community incubator, a cultural school and an aesthetic path, as they are considered a source of creativity that has developed with the expertise of craftsmen and engineers, so that each part of a mosque becomes unique in itself. "This rich partnership with the Ithra Center highlights the different dimensions of the mosque," he added.
