The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture took a front-row seat at the recent Annual Meeting and Expo of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) in Seattle, Washington, where innovation was the name of the game.
More than 5,000 people — about 650 from outside the United States — attended the group’s 108th gathering held May 18-21 under the theme “Innovation Edge.”
Rusha Al Rawaf, head of the Culture and Creativity Division in the Center’s Programs Department, led a five-person team at the largest gathering of museum specialists in the world. The center has been the lead sponsor of the event for three consecutive years.
Al Rawaf said the Center is striving to emulate Seattle — birthplace of Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft and grunge music — as an “innovation-edge epicenter.”
“We are seeking to create something new in a place that aspires for progress. This is what we are striving for at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture. This is what we are striving for in Saudi Aramco,” she told about 180 guests at the Center-sponsored International Attendee Welcome Reception at the Seattle Art Museum on opening day. “Respectful of our past, we are looking to reinvigorate the culturally rich civilization of the Arabian Peninsula.”
Al Rawaf said the center has launched a number of successful programs even before its landmark physical components will be completed late next year in Dhahran.
Facilities will include four museum galleries exploring Arabian history, heritage and culture, and the 18-story Knowledge Tower offering workshops in subjects ranging from science to art, media and digital literacy, along with the Keystone idea incubator, the Children’s Discovery Zone, the Great Hall for major exhibitions, multimedia and performance theaters, a 500,000-book library and an archive for the company and the Kingdom.
The Center plans to be “right bang in the middle of the present landscape of museums, art and theater,” Al Rawaf told attendees.
The Center also sponsored the conference’s International Track sessions, which were simultaneously translated into several languages, including Arabic, as well as the Arabic translation of 10 AAM books about critical museum subjects. The first six books were released in Seattle, with the remainder set for publication in June.
Center staff enhanced the AAM program in several important areas. Manal Al-Ghannam, Islamic Arts coordinator for the Islamic Civilization Gallery, joined a doctoral researcher from the United Kingdom to present a paper on displaying Islamic art in Saudi Arabia, the United States and Europe. Mark Wright, head of Museums and Exhibitions, keynoted the 25th Annual Muse Awards ceremony, which honored outstanding achievements in gallery, library, archives and museum media.
Al Rawaf said Seattle provided “living proof of developing something brave, something new.”
Her words echoed earlier remarks by Mimi Gates, Microsoft founder Bill Gates stepmother, at the AAM’s CEO and Directors Reception. “I welcome museums that provide leadership outside the United States,” she told guests at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Al Rawaf said the Center has done just that, citing several successful projects.
“This year alone, we’ve exceeded all expectations in public numbers attending iThra Knowledge Program, where we’ve had more than 1.6 million visitors in three cities come to see offerings, including live performances, shows about world inventions and energy efficiency, and the first-ever Picasso exhibition in Saudi Arabia as part of our collaboration with Pompidou Center in Paris,” she noted.
The program was held in Dhahran, Hofuf and Jiddah last year. Riyadh is on the schedule this summer.
Al Rawaf also announced that the Center had just won two gold medals and a silver medal for its “Children of the World,” entry in the New York Festival’s “Best Television & Films” competition. Continuous showings of “Children of the World” — a heartwarming series of three-minute films that look at a day in the life of a child in five regions of Saudi Arabia (Abha, Jiddah, Hail, Riyadh and al-Hasa/al-Khobar) and in 16 other countries — drew smiles from visitors who flocked to the center’s AAM Expo booth.
“The Book of Sands,” another short film that was produced for the iRead program, a national reading competition, was listed as an official honoree at the 18th annual Webby Awards, given for excellence on the Internet.
“These successes highlight our desire to approach our culture in a new, fresh way,” Al Rawaf said. “Ultimately, what we are building is not just a place for arts, theater and books … but a platform for enriching the future of the region.”
She said the Center’s collaboration with the AAM is “bearing many a fruitful creation and occasion.”
Ford Bell, the AAM’s chief executive officer, agreed and thanked the Center for its support in his opening address.
“Our partnership has been enormously beneficial to museums and museum professionals in the United States and Saudi Arabia,” he said. “I know the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture will be all about innovation, both philosophically and from a technical standpoint, when it opens.”
He said the Center’s sponsorship has boosted international participation in the organization, broadening the museum “conversation.”
“It has underscored the fact that the community of museums is international,” he said when he visited the center’s booth. “Across many countries, many societies, we have something in common — the desire to remember the past, to learn from the past, to celebrate our heritages and to prepare us for the future.”
Al Rawaf said the eye-catching booth at the front of the Expo received an “extremely positive” public reception. “People were excited to see that the Center is homegrown, and to see that Saudis are working on it and developing it based on our research showing what people want,” she said.
The booth was a popular venue for visitors who wanted to learn about the Center’s plans and activities.
“The idea of the Center and the structure itself are remarkable,” said Toni Wood of the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, which is currently hosting the Kingdom’s “Roads of Arabia” archeological exhibition. “To have this (facility) for knowledge, innovation and performance is very inspiring.”
Asian visitors were equally enthused.
“I love the concept of the Center and how natural resources profits are being used for the benefit of the people,” said Ariun Sanjaajamts, a New York-based museum consultant attending as part of a five-person Mongolian delegation. “The Center is creating an environment for people to discover themselves.”
When Bell visited the booth, he remembered viewing the Center as “this big hole in the ground” when he visited Dhahran in 2010. “To see it evolving is exciting,” he said. “It’s absolutely unique internationally.”
Bell said the Center has added “incredible energy” to the museum dialog.
“We all learn something from each other,” he noted. “If it’s just people from the Western Hemisphere or just people from the United States who are coming to this meeting, we’re really missing a big part of the conversation. People from all over come together and they have something in common to talk about.”
Undoubtedly, the Center will contribute ever more to those conversations, from its front-row seat in the global community of museums, as it grows and matures in the coming years.
