Intercultural Dialogue
UNESCO’s World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development is marked annually on May 21 to celebrate “not only the richness of the world’s cultures, but also the essential role of intercultural dialogue for achieving peace and sustainable development.” Bringing culture and sustainability into the same conversation is a relatively new stance for the UN, which only passed its position resolution on this in December 2015.
Intercultural dialogue and sustainable development, however, were always among the core values of Ithra, the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Ithra serves as a venue for international programming in the visual arts, cinema and performing arts, and also as a stage for presenting Saudi culture to the rest of the world. One element that particularly sets Ithra apart from most arts-oriented cultural institutions is the Center’s dedication to sustainability and entrepreneurialism.
Ithra’s iconic building was awarded LEED Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a worldwide green building certification program). While the built environment is a start to Ithra’s focus on sustainability, its entire slate of cultural and educational programming is dedicated to fueling a sustainable creative economy. One of Ithra’s key components is the Idea Lab – an innovation studio that drives Ithra’s largest annual event, the creativity festival known as Tanween. The Idea Lab brings leading innovators from around the world to create dialogue among topics ranging from film to the space industry. It also takes on subjects as broad as industry-changing phenomena to the fundamental practice of helping an individual create a prototype and bring a product to market. The longest of journeys, after all, begins with a single step.
Marking the first exhibition collaboration between museums of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Ithra’s The Art of Orientation is an exhibition about mosques that features some of the leading masterworks of Islamic art in the world, including 84 works from the Museum of Islamic Arts in Cairo under the direction of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities.
Another of Ithra’s leading programs for cultural diversity and dialogue is its biannual series of Cultural Days festivals, beginning in 2020 with Vietnam. Working with the embassy, scores of artists, performers, craftsmen and cooks shared Vietnamese culture with tens of thousands of Saudis.
A more direct program about sustainability is Ithra’s newly opened Terra Exhibit, which showcases the work of various international artists whose work is about sustainability. Terra takes on topics such as the importance of mangroves, water scarcity, the excessive use of plastic, and food waste and it encourages visitors to take simple and subtle actions to help save the planet.
Written by Daniel Kany
