A Decade of Transformation: Rethinking Saudi Arabia’s Cultural Sector
This article was written by Raed Al-Eid and submitted to Soogk as an opinion piece.
The launch of Vision 2030 marked a turning point in how culture was understood and managed in Saudi Arabia. What had long been viewed primarily as an intellectual, literary, or artistic pursuit gradually came to be recognized as a sector in its own right, one capable of contributing to economic development, social transformation, and national identity.
In the process, the very definition of culture expanded to include fields and activities that had previously occupied only a limited place within the Kingdom's institutional landscape. Prior to this shift, cultural life was sustained largely through literary clubs, cultural magazines, individual initiatives, and a relatively small number of recurring events. These institutions played an important role in preserving cultural activity and providing spaces for intellectual exchange. Yet their ability to grow, attract investment, or develop into a broader cultural ecosystem remained constrained by the absence of a dedicated institutional framework.
Vision 2030 Altered this Trajectory
Culture began to assume a more prominent position within public policy, culminating in the establishment of the General Authority for Culture on 6 May 2016. The Authority represented the first serious attempt to bring diverse cultural activities under a unified administrative structure. This process continued with the creation of the Ministry of Culture in 2018 as an independent entity, followed by the establishment of a range of specialized commissions that now oversee nearly every major cultural field.
The significance of this transformation lies not only in institutional restructuring but also in a broader change in how cultural activity is conceived. Over the past decade, cultural work has increasingly been organized through formal strategies, programs, funding mechanisms, and regulatory frameworks. What was once driven largely by individual initiative has gradually evolved into a sector that can be planned, measured, financed, and evaluated.
In this sense, the foundations of a modern cultural sector have been established. Nearly ten years after these reforms began, however, it is worth asking how far this process has progressed. Has the sector reached a stage of maturity, or does it remain in the midst of formation? More importantly, have the developments of the past decade generated lasting impact, or have they produced a collection of activities whose long-term effects remain uncertain? These questions invite a more reflective assessment of the sector's trajectory and achievements.
A Sector That Requires a Different Lens
After a decade of institution-building and following the publication of six State of Culture reports alongside numerous annual reports documenting attendance figures, event numbers, and project outputs, it may be time to move beyond descriptive indicators alone. Quantitative measures remain valuable, but they tell only part of the story.
Understanding the evolution of a cultural sector requires attention not only to what has been achieved, but also to how those achievements have altered the sector's capacity to sustain itself, adapt, and generate long-term value. This analysis approaches the Saudi cultural sector through an adapted version of the Sector Competitiveness Framework used by organizations such as the World Economic Forum and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Rather than focusing solely on activity levels, the framework examines the conditions that support a sector's long-term performance and resilience. It does so through five interconnected dimensions: productivity, innovation, the quality of human capital, the business environment, and market accessibility.
The discussion that follows draws on recent State of Culture reports, Vision 2030 indicators, official progress reports, and observations developed through direct engagement with the cultural sector over an extended period. The objective is not simply to catalogue accomplishments, but to understand what they reveal about the sector's development and the challenges that may shape its next phase.
Productivity: Moving Beyond Activity Counts
Over the past decade, the Saudi cultural sector has experienced a substantial expansion in activity. Cultural events have become more frequent, investment in infrastructure has increased, and new institutions have emerged across the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Taken together, these developments demonstrate a growing capacity to organize, deliver, and sustain cultural programming at a scale that would have been difficult to imagine only a decade ago. At the same time, productivity in a cultural sector cannot be understood solely through the volume of activity it generates.
While event numbers and participation rates provide useful indicators of growth, they reveal little about the lasting value created by that activity.
A sector may produce a large number of events without necessarily strengthening cultural knowledge, supporting creative production, or contributing to the long-term development of cultural industries. The more important question, therefore, concerns the quality and durability of cultural outputs. To what extent do cultural activities contribute to knowledge production, audience development, creative practice, or economic opportunity? Do they leave behind assets, capabilities, and relationships that continue to generate value after the event itself has ended?
The emphasis on expanding cultural activity during the sector's formative years was both understandable and, in many respects, necessary. Raising public awareness, building visibility, and encouraging participation required a high volume of programming. Yet a strategy that is effective during a period of establishment may become less suitable as a sector matures. As the cultural ecosystem develops, the challenge shifts from increasing activity to improving its quality, depth, and long-term impact. In this regard, the next phase of development may depend less on producing more events and more on ensuring that cultural activity contributes to sustainable forms of cultural, social, and economic value.
Innovation: From Experimentation to Institutional Practice
Innovation has become an increasingly visible feature of cultural practice in recent years. New approaches to event design, audience engagement, cultural products, and digital experiences have emerged as institutions respond to changing expectations and evolving patterns of cultural consumption. Across the sector, experimentation is no longer unusual; it has become an accepted part of how cultural organizations seek to remain relevant and responsive.
This shift is also evident at the institutional level. Many cultural organizations have incorporated innovation into their structures and strategic priorities, establishing dedicated units and supporting initiatives such as hackathons, accelerators, design challenges, and incubation programs. These efforts have created valuable opportunities for testing new ideas and exploring alternative ways of producing cultural experiences.
However, innovation should not be assessed solely by the number of initiatives launched or ideas generated. Its significance ultimately depends on whether experimentation leads to lasting changes in practice. While several cultural ventures have demonstrated a willingness to test new approaches, translating successful experiments into sustainable and repeatable models remains a more difficult task.
The sector today offers greater room for experimentation than at any previous point in its development. The challenge is to ensure that innovation becomes embedded within institutional culture rather than remaining dependent on individual projects or short-term initiatives.
This requires not only continued support for experimentation but also a clearer framework for understanding and governing cultural innovation itself. Cultural innovation differs in important ways from innovation in other sectors. It often involves balancing competing values, including creativity, heritage, public benefit, artistic freedom, and economic sustainability. For that reason, the sector should be cautious about adopting generic innovation frameworks without adapting them to its specific context. A more mature approach would recognize the distinctive character of cultural work and develop innovation models that reflect its particular objectives, constraints, and social responsibilities.
Quality of Competencies: Building Expertise for a Maturing Sector
No sector can develop sustainably without a strong base of specialized talent. The rapid growth of the Saudi cultural sector has generated demand for a wide range of professional skills, from cultural management and policy development to curation, heritage conservation, creative production, and audience engagement. While a number of training initiatives have emerged in recent years to address these needs, the demand for qualified professionals continues to exceed the available supply.
Part of the challenge stems from the tendency to rely on generalist practitioners to fill roles that require specialized expertise. Although adaptability and broad experience have value, the long-term development of a cultural sector depends on professional knowledge that is both deep and field-specific. In some cases, the absence of such expertise has resulted in practices that limit the sector's development rather than strengthen it, particularly where complex cultural work is approached through administrative or operational lenses alone.
The establishment of Riyadh Art University represents an important step toward addressing this gap, and significant expectations have understandably been placed upon it and similar institutions. Yet the needs of the cultural sector extend far beyond what any single institution can provide. The sector encompasses a diverse workforce operating across multiple disciplines, each requiring distinct forms of training, professional development, and practical experience.
For this reason, the issue is not simply one of numbers. The future of the sector will depend on the quality of expertise it cultivates, the opportunities available for continuous learning, and the ability of practitioners to translate ideas and strategies into effective implementation. Building cultural capacity must therefore be understood as a long-term investment rather than a short-term workforce objective.
Ultimately, strengthening cultural competencies is about more than preparing individuals for employment. It is about ensuring that the sector develops a body of accumulated knowledge and professional practice capable of sustaining future growth. Without that foundation, institutions may expand while remaining disconnected from the intellectual and professional traditions that give cultural work its depth, continuity, and purpose.
The Business Environment: Toward a More Sustainable Cultural Economy
The business environment surrounding the cultural sector has evolved considerably over the past decade. Investment opportunities have expanded, new cultural enterprises have entered the market, funding sources have become more diverse, and the private sector has assumed a larger role in supporting cultural activity. These developments have contributed to a more dynamic ecosystem and created pathways that were largely unavailable during the sector's earlier stages of development.
Despite this progress, important challenges remain. The cultural economy still requires greater regulatory certainty, clearer business models, and financing mechanisms that recognize the distinctive nature of cultural production. Unlike many commercial sectors, cultural projects often generate value over extended periods and cannot always be assessed through short-term measures of profitability alone.
Another consequence of the sector's rapid expansion has been the entry of organizations with limited cultural expertise but strong access to resources and opportunities. While such participation is not inherently problematic, it has at times diverted attention and investment away from the development of specialized cultural enterprises and non-profit organizations capable of contributing to the sector over the long term.
This issue has become particularly relevant as the non-profit cultural sector has grown rapidly in recent years. The increasing number of cultural associations and organizations presents an opportunity to build a more resilient and diversified ecosystem. Realizing that potential, however, requires moving beyond treating these organizations as temporary project partners. They must be supported as institutions in their own right, capable of designing, implementing, and sustaining programs that contribute meaningfully to public cultural life. A healthy cultural economy depends not only on attracting investment but also on cultivating organizations whose commitment to the sector extends beyond immediate commercial returns.
Market Accessibility: Creating Pathways, Not Just Open Doors
One of the most visible changes in the Saudi cultural sector has been the widening of access to participation. Opportunities that were once concentrated within a relatively small number of institutions are now available to independent practitioners, entrepreneurs, start-ups, and emerging organizations. This has contributed to a more diverse cultural landscape and has lowered barriers that previously limited entry into the field. However, access should not be understood solely as the absence of barriers. Opening a market is only the first step. Sustainable participation requires clear pathways through which individuals and organizations can navigate opportunities, obtain information, understand procedures, and build relationships within the broader ecosystem. Without these supporting structures, accessibility risks becoming formal rather than meaningful.
For this reason, strengthening small and medium-sized cultural organizations should be viewed as a strategic priority. A diverse ecosystem is generally more resilient than one dominated by a limited number of large actors. Supporting smaller organizations not only broadens participation but also encourages experimentation, local engagement, and the emergence of new cultural voices. Meaningful empowerment, however, involves more than increasing the number of participants. It requires long-term engagement, institutional support, and a commitment to helping organizations develop beyond their initial point of entry.
The goal should not simply be to create opportunities, but to build an environment in which cultural actors can grow, collaborate, and remain active contributors to the sector over time.
Measuring Cultural Impact: What Has Changed in Society?
Assessing the cultural sector solely through the lens of competitiveness risks overlooking its most fundamental purpose: its influence on society itself. For this reason, a sixth dimension should be added to the analytical framework outlined above ,namely, cultural impact. While competitiveness helps explain a sector's capacity to grow and sustain itself, impact provides insight into whether that growth has translated into meaningful social and cultural change.This perspective draws, in part, on approaches developed by organizations such as UNESCO and the European Commission, which emphasize culture's contribution to identity, participation, social cohesion, and collective well-being. Such frameworks remind us that the success of a cultural sector cannot be measured only by what it produces, but also by how it shapes the communities it serves.
One indicator of impact is the extent of cultural participation. By most observable measures, participation has expanded significantly in recent years. Attendance at cultural events has increased, audiences have become more diverse, and cultural activities have gained a more visible presence in everyday life. These developments suggest that culture is reaching wider segments of society than before.
Yet participation alone is not necessarily evidence of impact. The more important question concerns continuity. Lasting cultural influence emerges when engagement becomes habitual rather than occasional, when audiences return repeatedly, and when cultural participation becomes part of everyday practice rather than a temporary experience. Building such habits takes time, and their effects are often less visible than attendance figures or event statistics.
A second indicator is the diversity of cultural expression and the extent to which different voices are able to participate in the sector. Over the past decade, the cultural landscape has undoubtedly become broader. New fields have emerged, opportunities for expression have multiplied, and previously underrepresented forms of cultural activity have gained visibility. These developments represent a meaningful shift from the more limited ecosystem that existed in earlier years.
At the same time, diversity should be understood as more than the expansion of categories or activities. It also concerns who is able to participate, whose perspectives are represented, and whether new generations of practitioners are finding pathways into the sector. The critical question is not simply whether the field has become larger, but whether it has become more open to new voices, new ideas, and new forms of cultural leadership. A vibrant cultural sector renews itself continuously; it does not rely indefinitely on the same individuals, institutions, or networks to sustain its public presence.
Beyond the First Decade: A Moment for Reassessment
Looking back on the first decade of institutional development reveals a sector that has undergone substantial transformation. The achievements are significant, and the foundations established by the Ministry of Culture and other public institutions have reshaped the cultural landscape in ways that would have seemed unlikely only a few years ago. At the same time, acknowledging these accomplishments should not prevent a candid assessment of the challenges that remain unresolved.Periods of rapid growth often create habits and assumptions that become difficult to question. As sectors mature, however, they benefit from moments of reflection that allow them to reassess priorities, identify structural weaknesses, and reconsider the effectiveness of existing approaches. The Saudi cultural sector has now reached a stage where such reflection is both possible and necessary.
A decade after its formal establishment, it is no longer sufficient to explain persistent challenges as the inevitable consequences of a new experience. Nor is it enough to cite the volume of activities, events, or initiatives as evidence of success. These indicators remain important, but they are only part of a larger picture. The more pressing task is to understand the quality of what has been built, the durability of its effects, and its capacity to continue evolving in response to changing social and cultural needs. Critical evaluation should not be mistaken for criticism. On the contrary, serious assessment is one of the clearest signs that a sector has reached a level of maturity worthy of sustained scrutiny.
The purpose of such reflection is not to diminish what has been achieved, but to build upon it more effectively. As the sector enters its second decade, the challenge is less about expansion than about consolidation. Future progress will depend on strengthening institutional depth, cultivating expertise, supporting a more resilient ecosystem, and ensuring that cultural initiatives generate value that extends beyond the immediate moment. The ultimate measure of success will not be how much activity the sector produces, but how deeply it shapes cultural life and how sustainably it contributes to the broader development of society.
An opinion piece by Raed Al-Eid.
