Ithra’s Creative Solutions program

About Ithra

The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) is Saudi Arabia’s premier cultural and creative destination for talent development and cross-cultural experiences. It is a creative and interactive public space for workshops, performances, events and exhibitions. Ithra offers an enriching journey for everyone by championing diversity, celebrating creativity and encouraging collaboration with the objective of energizing the Kingdom’s knowledge economy.

About Creative Solutions 

Ithra’s purpose-driven Creative Solutions program promises to enrich, educate and inspire creative individuals by developing digital immersive content that connects the participants with global experts and investors to promote and nurture new and innovative products. The year-long initiative is designed to boost Saudi’s creative economy by empowering digital content creation in immersive technologies. It focuses on building an ecosystem of innovators working on artificial intelligence, haptics and virtual, augmented and mixed reality, as well as immersive audio. Ithra’s Creative Solutions program: 

• Creative Solutions redefines the way communities build on the creative and tech-based economy, with a focus on STEAM learning and self-development.
• Through interactive workshops, talks and other engagements, Creative Solutions offers a specialized program focused on developing participants interested in the world’s future in science, technology, art and innovation
• Creative Solutions introduces the Kingdom to new ways in which the world of creativity and technology is growing. 
• Creative Solutions reaffirms Ithra as a leading hub for creatives and innovators and as a space for creative thinking. Its year-round programs offer opportunities that support, nourish and define new experiences for local, regional and international participants. 

About the 2021 program 

• Ithra’s inaugural Creative Solutions program drew applications from 231 groups. The five finalist projects developed into prototypes are:
  • Alqatt XR: Featuring the iconic traditional Al-Qatt art form from southern Saudi Arabia
  • The Anticipation of Rain: A mixed reality, location-based experience focused on the sensations which come from heavy rainstorms
  • Jawaab: An interactive gamified museum tour, which assists visitor experiences at museums and other institutions
  • History of Science: A storytelling experience of the greatest scientists in history, involving holograms, virtual reality and multi-speaker immersive sound 
  • Wamdah: A virtual journey across time and space in Saudi Arabia