ABHA, 21 September 2007 — Saudi Arabia suffers from a deficiency in artistic venues. Most galleries and studios are private and understated affairs. Art exhibitions, of which there are few, often take place in shopping malls rather than proper galleries. But the situation has been moving in a better direction for aspiring Saudi artists and art aficionados.
One of the contemporary efforts to promote the arts in the Kingdom is Al-Muftaha Village, the closest thing the Kingdom has to an artists’ colony, which is located in Abha. Founded in 1989, the organization offers studios and exhibition space, but until last year only male artists used the studios because of the social taboo about women working side by side with men.
But Artist Abdullah Shaher, a well-known local painter and director of King Fahd Cultural Center in Al-Muftaha Village, says the organization has recently made efforts to promote more women artists. “A year ago, the center approved studio space for women artists in Al-Muftaha,” said Shaher. “The number of women using the space has reached 15.”
In the first year of this effort, the 15 women utilizing Al-Muftaha studios have organized two local exhibitions. They also organized and built a permanent workshop for women artists.
Shaher says he would like to see these women able to show their art outside of the Kingdom, but points out that because of cultural mores and laws that require women to acquire permission to travel from their legal guardian (known as a mahram, which is usually a father, a brother or a husband) it would be difficult to send these artists to international exhibitions since their right to travel abroad is under the auspices of another person’s personal discretion and not the woman’s herself.
“It would be our honor for these young women to participate in exhibitions outside of the country,” said Shaher. “If only they could travel abroad freely and at their own discretion.”
Ahmad Mater, a young local artist who is supportive of the cultural center’s efforts to promote women in the local arts scene, said that more could be done to correct what he considers past wrongs.
“Certain sections of Saudi society, including the government’s own artistic and cultural departments, have neglected women artists for a long time,” said Mater. “The new studio (for women) inside the Al-Muftaha Village should have been established long time ago. And still, it is unfair to have numerous women working out of one studio while each male artist has his own space.”
Mater also says he is concerned that the efforts are more for show than for substantive reforms. He underscores the fact that the local women who wanted to show their art spent a lot of time and effort merely to get permission to do so. The women had hoped to organize an exhibition during Abha’s annual summer festival; Abha is a popular summer retreat for Saudis due to its altitude and corresponding mild summertime temperatures.
“These women went through so much trouble to obtain permission for an exhibition,” he said. “By the time they were given clearance, the Abha festival was almost over.”
Mater suggests that the women be provided some administrative support from the cultural center to deal with the red tape of organizing or participating in events so that they can focus on their work.
Ola Al-Asmi, a woman artist who is also the director of the women’s workshop at Al-Muftaha Village, echoes a common call among Saudi women who say if society is so hung up on men and women working together, then the government and organizations must simply create equal and parallel institutions for women, not just smaller sub-sections as is the case with the Al-Muftaha women’s workshop.
“There has to be an independent separate official studio for women so that the artists could bypass such problems that emerge from social constraints,” said Al-Asmi. “We would like to establish our own painting institution, but unfortunately we lack the financial means that could support the idea. We might also not find support from art officials in the region.”
Theoretically, the Ministry of Culture and Information could provide some or all support for parallel women’s art organizations, as it does with the Kingdom’s dozen official literary clubs that often host cultural readings. (Currently the literary cubs are also opening up women’s sub-sections in a similar fashion as King Fahd Cultural Center in Abha.)
Al-Asmi, who holds a master’s degree in arts education, said she would prefer to see this interaction among artists regardless of their gender rather than separate-but-equal institutions. Nevertheless, she is a realist, and says she is happy that the cultural center is allowing women to interact with their male colleagues at all. “Asir is a closed society and wouldn’t welcome such events very easily,” she said.
Al-Asmi also echoes Mater comment that the administrative support for women artists should be improved. “We’re being unfairly treated by official organizations when it comes to being notified about exhibitions held in different parts of the Kingdom,” she said, pointing out that she only learns of opportunities elsewhere in the Kingdom through word of mouth and personal connections.
For these women in Abha, the workshop is not only a welcome venue to hone their skills and learn from colleagues, it is also a refuge. “I disconnect from my daily routine when I go to the studio to paint,” said Khatmah Al-Sahl, an elementary teacher who enjoys painting at Al-Muftaha. “It helps me refresh my thoughts and raises my spirits.”
