In a significant shift for the kingdom, Saudi Arabia plans to focus on developing its arts and media sectors in an effort to counter negative stereotypes.
Although, the kingdom doesn't have any cinemas...
Ahmed Al Mulla, the director of the Saudi Film Festival, said Saudi Arabia is starting from "ground zero."
Artists "were like a rare coin banned from circulation," Mulla said, according to The National . He pointed out that the kingdom's artists are in serious need of infrastructure and a base that should be implemented in educational institutions.
In line with Mulla's thinking, Saudi Arabia plans to develop a Royal Arts Complex and a Media City.
These facilities would nurture young Saudi talents as well as work to convey an image of the kingdom to the outside world. "What we’re aiming to do is to provide institutions that can display their work, that can support them, that can provide them with grants, scholarships, to pursue their dreams of creating art," Adel Al Turaifi, minister of culture and information, said.
The initiative comes as part of Saudi Arabia's recently approved National Transformation Program .
The conservative Wahhabi movement, which the kingdom was founded upon, forbids painting the human form and discourages music.
However, with more than half of the kingdom's citizens below the age of 25, things have been changing.