Saudi Arabia partners with King Charles’ Foundation to promote arts and crafts

King Charles’ decades-long celebration of traditional architecture, arts and crafts has been embraced by the Arab world and is now seeking to promote its own arts and crafts in similar ways.

An agreement was signed in Riyadh this week that effectively combines the commitments of two kingdoms. The collaboration agreement commits the King’s Foundation to participate in Saudi Arabia’s Year of Handicrafts 2025 initiative through the foundation’s School of Traditional Arts.

Culture Minister Prince Bader bin Farhan attended the signing ceremony on Wednesday as part of the Saudi International Handicrafts Week Exhibition in Riyadh. Khaled Omar Azzam, director of the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, and Hamed Fayez, deputy minister of culture, were also present at the signing of the agreement, which aims to revive and promote handicrafts in Saudi Arabia in 2025.

The collaboration includes training programs in handicrafts in Saudi Arabia and the launch of the “Regeneration of Handicrafts in Saudi Arabia” program. To this end, the King Charles’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts will develop tailored programs.

At the heart of the entire initiative is King Charles’ long-standing commitment to traditional art, architecture and crafts. It goes back a long way. The king has made headlines over the years with his criticism of modern architecture. He once criticized a planned expansion of the National Gallery as a “monstrous carbuncle”.

Charles’ vision was to take physical form with the support of Poundbury in 1993, an experimental town near Dorchester based on traditional architecture.

This and his public statements made the current king a pioneer of traditionalism in art. Most importantly, in 1986 he established a foundation, now known as The King’s Foundation, which has played a pioneering role in the training of traditional arts, heritage and craft skills alongside town planning and traditional architecture at Charles’ country estate, Highgrove in Gloucestershire. A key part of the courses is placing the people and communities involved at the heart of the design process.

He has urged communities not to lose the dwindling skills that have shaped the built environment and to prevent skilled trades from disappearing “at an alarming rate”.

Bringing his relevant charities together at Dumfries House, he said in a mission statement of sorts: “My hope is to create a place where we can teach construction, design, textiles and stem (science, technology) by combining knowledge in engineering and mathematics, as well as educational programs in food and agriculture, we can begin to not only create the professional skills to protect, regenerate and reuse our historical heritage, but also our future heritage “To create and inspire a new generation to adopt healthier and more sustainable lifestyles in their communities.”

The Saudis appear to share King Charles’ vision of protecting, promoting and developing traditional crafts. A spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Culture said after the signing this week: “The main aim is to regenerate and renew Saudi craft traditions in different regions of the kingdom.”

The agreement between the Saudi Ministry of Culture and the King’s Foundation School is part of the national cultural strategy under the umbrella of Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to transform the Saudi economy and diversify its social and cultural life.