Saudi Crown Prince sponsors the closing of the “National Cultural Awards”

The Saudi Crown Prince, Prince Muhammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, sponsors the closing ceremony of the “National Cultural Awards” initiative organized by the Saudi Ministry of Culture, on Monday evening April 19, 2021, at the Culture Palace in the Al-Sefarat neighborhood in Riyadh.

The Minister of Culture, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, appreciated the generous patronage of the Crown Prince for this cultural event in which the creators of culture in Saudi Arabia, including pioneers and youth, are honored.

He stressed that the generous patronage is the crowning glory of the nation’s intellectuals, and an indication of the appreciation, attention, and care that culture enjoys from the wise leadership, in light of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which raised the value of culture and gave it its high position as one of the components of the quality of life, and one of the main components of the national identity.

The Minister of Culture extended his thanks and gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and His Highness the Crown Prince, for the continuous and growing support for the culture sector in all regions of the Kingdom and on various creative paths.

The closing ceremony of the “National Cultural Awards” initiative will witness honoring the winners of the initiative’s prizes, which cover various tracks of cultural activity in the Kingdom.

The award ceremony comes after a journey that the “National Cultural Awards” initiative made since its start of activity in June 2020 AD, during which it received about 15,000 nominations from the entire cultural community through the specialized electronic platform https://culturalawards.moc.gov.sa, before The screening process begins in October of the same year, then liquidation in November, and the evaluation and arbitration processes last December.

Nominations were distributed among the different branches and specializations of the initiative, which included the following sectors: film, fashion, music, national heritage, literature, theater and performing arts, visual arts, architecture and design, culinary arts, publishing, translation, in addition to a prize dedicated to cultural institutions.

The Ministry of Culture aims to organize the “National Cultural Awards” initiative within the initiatives of the Quality of Life Program, one of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 programs, to provide established paths of honor for cultural achievement in the Kingdom, and to celebrate the achievements of Saudi creative makers, whether individuals, groups, or institutions in all cultural sectors.

 This is based on the Ministry’s belief in the importance of honoring in advancing local cultural production, and upgrading it to higher levels of quality and perfection, with the implications of this for creating a competitive cultural environment that contributes to enriching and diversifying cultural content.