First Art Residency Program, in AlUla, Unfurled

The 1^st ever art residency program, in AlUla, a unique cultural landscape of North-West of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for centuries have been a consistent and ever evolving culture and trade hub, the French Agency for AlUla Development (Afalula) revealed.
The 11-week-long residency program fosters dialogue, exchange and collaboration among artists, in residence and the community of experts working on the ground in AlUla, as well as local practitioners and other members of the local community.

Through these collaborations, embedded within varied technical teams including geology, archaeology, botany, and architecture, AlUla will truly become ‘a destination built by artists’.

The rebirth of the oasis is the theme of this inaugural edition, during which artists’ research and work focuses on the oasis, one of AlUla’s most prominent landscapes where a revegetation program, is underway, in an effort to give it a new breath of life.
The program encourages invited residents to reflect on the place of the artists, in such vast development programs and the way they can integrate their insights and perspectives, in the research undertaken by the community of experts.

In addition to providing support to develop the artists’ research and production projects to be implemented, in AlUla, as a dynamic public program organized, in collaboration with the artists, the experts, and the local community on a weekly basis.

It includes open studios, workshops, and meetings between the public and the artists about their work, in progress, at different stages of the residency.
The first edition is based in Mabiti AlUla, a palm-grove and a guest-house in the heart of AlUla’s oasis.

It will subsequently be established in Madrasat AdDeera, an arts and design center.

Artists in residence already started buildings, in collaborations with local artisans through the programs held, at Madrasat, while delving deeper, in focusing their research on the local materials of AlUla, its craft and cultural practices.

Madrasat AdDeera would be a key anchor asset of the future Arts District of AlUla, a dynamic cluster of programs, education and deeper production that will form an active and vibrant arts destination for communities, students, artists and visitors.