A new arts university in Riyadh will help Saudi Arabia to achieve ambitious plans for a thriving creative arts economy by 2030, the country¡¯s culture minister has said.

Speaking at ̽»¨ÊÓƵ¡¯s World Academic Summit at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia¡¯s deputy minister for national partnerships and talent development Noha Kattan explained the Riyadh University of Arts will be an important part of the country¡¯s investments in arts, culture and sport which, according to a , have totalled $21.6 billion (?16.3 billion) since 2019.

Due to open in 2026, Riyadh University of Arts will be the Middle East¡¯s first specialist arts institution and offer degrees and other courses in music, film, theatre and other performing arts. The university will expand to offer courses in architecture, culinary arts and heritage studies among other subjects and aims to graduate up to 30,000 students by 2040.

The new institution, which will eventually have 13 colleges, will become an integral part in providing the talent needed to grow Saudi Arabia¡¯s creative and artistic economy, explained Kattan, with the creative arts aiming to increase its share of Saudi¡¯s GDP from under 1 per cent to 3 per cent by the end of the decade?¨C a target of the?social and economic transformation plan Vision 2030 masterminded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

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¡°It will play a vital role in creating the ecosystem we want to have¡­by responding to labour market requirements,¡± explained the Harvard Business School graduate, who also holds a medical sciences degree from the University of Sheffield, noting how demand for creative arts professionals had grown by 7 per cent annually in recent years.

Noting how Saudi Arabia¡¯s aim to ¡°make culture a way of life day-to-day¡± but also an important part of the country¡¯s economy and ¡°bridge¡± to bring together different parts of society ¨C the three planks of its national culture strategy ¨C Kattan explained how her department¡¯s work spanned education and industry. That is because Saudi Arabia needed to create both a talent pipeline for the creative industries but also establish businesses within those industries, she explained.

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¡°We are embedding arts and cultural education into schools and establishing collaborations with international universities but also creating labour market policies that recognise professionals in the arts and culture. Then we are providing the sectors and businesses that need to exist to take the talent we develop,¡± Kattan explained.

¡°We are doing all of this in tandem ¨C we can¡¯t wait for generations for this ecosystem to develop,¡± said Kattan, speaking on the final day of THE¡¯s summit on 9 October.

To achieve this, Saudi Arabia is supporting a suite of cultural festivals and events from museum exhibitions to live music performances that would underpin a thriving national culture of arts engagement that would eventually have an important economic pay-off, said Kattan.

¡°There is huge demand and need for [arts and culture] but it will also be extremely important for job creation in the artistic areas but that will require us to develop our talent pipeline,¡± she said on the economic case for the new Riyadh University of Arts, with Saudi Arabia aiming to have at least 300,000 people employed within its arts sector by 2030.

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With the new university aiming to become a top 50 arts university, research expertise would also be very important with the institution aiming to provide provision covering short courses to PhDs.

¡°This is very nascent so we are seeking international expertise as we develop,¡± she said.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com