Inthe recent Cairo meeting of Arab Producers’ Union for arts and media, the Riyadh Municipality won the award for pioneering joint social Arab projects, 2015 in recognition of its successful efforts in human development.
In fact, when we talk about any municipality, the first thing that comes to our mind is construction, town planning, roads and all other services relating to civic life.
But there is another side of the picture as far as the Riyadh Municipality is concerned. It relates to the building of man, as such integrating material and intellectual development to build an indigenous society.
During the past few years, the municipality has shown keen interest in promoting arts in general, like theatre, formative arts and cultural shows. These are recreational programs for the capital’s inhabitants and other nearby cities. They were carried out according to a wide-ranging strategic plan targeting all members of the family. This has created cultural and intellectual diversification.
Humanizing the capital and making it a friendly city is not limited to construction or technological services and other civic facilities. We know that Riyadh is not an agricultural, mountainous or coastal city. Nevertheless, careful planning has made it a man-friendly city. This planning, in addition to recreation and diversity have turned it into an easy to live in place.
Last year, the municipality signed an agreement with the Saudi Formative Artists Society to decorate the city with their paintings during the National Day celebrations.
This agreement has positively impacted the artistic movement in the country by extending support to the painters and giving them an opportunity to express themselves and show their love to their homeland.
We expect the municipality to keep up this good work and we suggest preparing a two-year program to give more time for development and improvement of this experience and turning it into an international cultural and art festival.
