Saudi Gazette report

Washington DC — The recently-established Misk Art Institute announced a program of Saudi art, music and discussion in Washington D.C. on the occasion of the US visit of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense.

The Institute, part of the Misk Foundation, the non-profit foundation established by the Crown Prince to empower Saudi youth, has organized two events in the city in collaboration with the Middle East Institute’s Arts and Culture program.

The first event was a pop-up exhibition and dinner reception on Wednesday at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, featuring major works by 33 artists from across the Kingdom, workshops, live music and remarks by Misk Foundation representatives.

The exhibition includes the first showing in Washington D.C. of the specially commissioned Al-Qatt Al-Asiri mural paintings by women artists from southern Saudi Arabia. This specific tradition of collective mural painting was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017.

On Thursday, Newseum will be the venue for ‘Saudi Arabia – changing landscapes’ an invitation-only panel discussion exploring the narrative of change in Saudi Arabia, through the lens of an artist and photographer from Saudi Arabia and a veteran journalist to provide an American perspective on social change.

Kate Seelye, Vice President of the Middle East Institute, will introduce the panel comprising Ahmed Mater, Saudi artist and Misk Art Institute director; Ayesha Malik, a young photographer based between Riyadh and New York; and Deborah Amos, an award-winning journalist who has visited and reported on Saudi Arabia for decades.

The event will be moderated by Michelle Kosinski, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent at CNN.

Images from MEI’s Colbert Held Collection, a unique collection of over 18,000 color Kodachrome slides of photos of the Middle East donated by Colbert Held in 2014 will also be featured.

Ahmed Mater, Director of the Misk Art Institute, said: “We are delighted to be bringing some of the best contemporary Saudi art to Washington D.C. during the visit of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman. It shows both the wealth of artistic talent in Saudi Arabia, and how art, and cultural expression and the creative industries are an integral part of the change that is transforming the Kingdom, helping ensure a vibrant society.

“Misk Art Institute, like the Misk Foundation more generally, works to empower the young Saudi population unleash its talent. We do this at home, but vitally, by encouraging international cultural exchange and diplomacy, also abroad. It is essential at this time that Saudi artists engage with audiences around the world, as they are here in Washington D.C., to help to tell the continuing story of change in Saudi Arabia”.

Saudi writer Ali Moghawi who is in Washington D.C. and who led the Al-Qatt Al-Asiri mural paintings project, said: “For decades, reviving Al-Qatt Al-Asiri traditional art, was no more than a dream. Now, we now witness the realization of this dream as we are provided with an international platform where we can share it and provide art lovers and enthusiasts with the opportunity to behold the beauty of this ancient art and delve into its shapes, colors and geometric angles.”

“Today we are with Misk, in Washington, the metropolis of art, presenting Asiri art to the world. This is a new testament of our leadership’s confidence in this historic art and flexibility to embrace development and present it to the world in the best manner.”