Art News

Royal Commission for AlUla and Centre Pompidou to Open Contemporary Art Museum in AlUla

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RCUxPompidou partnership

Left to right: Nora Aldabal, Prince Badr bin Farhan, Rima Abdul Malak, Laurent Le Bon. Image courtesy of the Royal Commission for AlUla

A new contemporary art museum in AlUla will open under a recent partnership agreement between the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) and Centre Pompidou.

A symbol of AlUla’s legacy as a historical nexus of cultures and civilisations, the museum will house a collection of 22st-century Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian art, immersive installations, land art, and a network of artists’ gardens. The new institution will also offer a commissioning programme for public art and specialist curatorial scholarship.

The agreement was signed by Nora Aldabal, Executive Director of Arts and Creative Industries for the Royal Commission for AlUla and Centre Pompidou president Laurent Le Bon with H.H. Prince Badr bin Farhan Al Saud, the Saudi Minister of Culture and Governor of RCU, and Rima Abdul Malak, the French Culture Minister, in attendance during the latter’s visit to Saudi Arabia. The partnership entails mutual collection loans, curatorial partnerships and shared museological expertise.