2025 Wraps up at Ithra as The Year of Handicrafts

Dhahran – Asdaf News:

In a year that honored craft as a vessel of memory and a reflection of identity, the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), an initiative by Saudi Aramco, offered a wide-ranging program of initiatives dedicated to elevating handicrafts in 2025. Across the year, Ithra presented more than 25 programs and events, with the participation of over 100 artists, offering new perspectives on handicrafts as evolving cultural practices—shaped by lived experience and in dialogue with contemporary artistic production. Through this integrated approach, Ithra bridged heritage with its social contexts, strengthening the presence of craft within today’s cultural landscape.

Art Exhibitions
Ithra presented seven art exhibitions, four of which launched this year, with the participation of more than 100 Saudi and international artists. The exhibitions approached craft as a deeply rooted aesthetic and cultural practice. Eternal Crafts: The Art of the Manuscript offered audiences an immersive introduction to Islamic illumination, featuring eight master artisans specializing in papermaking, calligraphy and gilding. The exhibition was accompanied by hands-on workshops that combined historical insight with practical engagement, bridging knowledge and practice.

Eternal Crafts: Communal Weaving offered a contemporary reading of weaving, highlighting the high level of skill and inherited collective labor embedded within the craft. It positioned weaving as a living tradition—one that evolves over time while preserving its communal essence. In a related context, Crafts in Conversation: A Convergence Between Traditional and Contemporary Art—launched in 2024 and concluded in mid-2025—served as a platform for exploring intersections between artisanal practices and contemporary artistic experimentation. The exhibition brought together works by 10 contemporary artists who reinterpreted traditional crafts through creative practice, alongside selected pieces of historical Islamic art from Ithra’s collection. Together, these works formed a visual dialogue reflecting both the continuity and transformation of craft traditions.

Complementing these explorations, Continuation of a Craft: Saudi Traditional Costumes shed light on Saudi Arabia’s heritage of traditional attire and jewelry, revealing the craftsmanship behind their design and production. Through materials, techniques and ornamentation, the exhibition highlighted the cultural diversity that characterizes the Kingdom’s regions.

Horizon in Their Hands: Women Artists from the Arab World (1960s-1980s) offered a visual and narrative experience that re-examined the relationship between craft and art, foregrounding women’s voices and the boundaries of artistic practice. Fifty Arab women artists shared their stories through works that drew on the past and reimagined it through the lens of modern art. Drawing from selected pieces from the Barjeel Art Foundation and Ithra’s collection, the exhibition connected Arab creativity to the modernist movements that began to take shape more than half a century ago.

A pivotal moment in this trajectory was In Praise of the Artisan, an exhibition featuring newly commissioned contemporary works created by highly skilled artisans. The exhibition traced the evolution of Islamic crafts, highlighting their historical centers and positioning craft as a bridge that connects time, place and knowledge. Alongside it, Baseqat: The Palm Tree Exhibition explored the creative potential of the palm tree—from palm-leaf weaving and papermaking to textile techniques—linking craft to the local environment and revealing nature’s richness and capacity for transformation.

Residency Program
As part of its efforts to deepen artistic engagement with craft, Ithra launched the Khoos Residency under the Khoos initiative, one of the creative programs introduced this year. The residency brought together artisans, designers and artists, with the participation of ten Saudi and international artists, to explore new visions for palm heritage, grounded in traditional roots and shaped by a forward-looking perspective that merged heritage with innovation. Ten artists from Saudi Arabia and across the Arab world and beyond took part, united by a shared passion for craft.

This approach also translated into a visual outcome through the documentary Sa‘fa, which offered a contemplative visual and narrative exploration of palm weaving. It framed the craft as a practice that transcends the tangible, opening a window onto hidden worlds of memory and identity.

International Engagements
On the international stage, Ithra continued to expand its global presence through its partnership with Turquoise Mountain in launching Patterns of Faith, an exhibition offering a contemporary perspective on craftsmanship within Islamic art. Featuring a curated selection of artisanal works, the exhibition reflected the diversity of artistic and architectural elements in Islamic art, with each piece standing as a testament to mastery, precision, and innovation inspired by inherited Islamic traditions.

From London to Dubai, Ithra further strengthened its presence through participation in the ICOM Pavilion in Dubai, where it showcased three key projects: the Khoos initiative, In Praise of the Artisan, and the Hijrah: In the Footsteps of the Prophet Exhibition. Through these projects, Ithra aimed to connect material heritage with contemporary creative practice, while integrating research and cultural storytelling into museum experiences. In Barcelona, Ithra participated in Mondiacult 2025, hosting a session that explored intangible cultural heritage from the perspectives of artists and artisans—broadening the global dialogue around handicrafts and cultural legacy.

Programs and Panel Discussions
Across its cultural programming, artisanal heritage remained a central focus of several initiatives. Among the most prominent was the Ithra Summer Camp, held this year under the theme: Little Hands, Big Ideas. Designed for children, the program offered an interactive educational experience that nurtured curiosity and introduced young audiences to the richness of local heritage in an accessible and inspiring way.

In addition, a series of in-depth panel discussions were held as part of the program the Authenticity of Crafts: A Journey through Saudi Heritage. These sessions brought together artisans, researchers and authors who have documented the history of handicrafts. The program concluded with guided tours of craft exhibitions, allowing participants to engage closely with artistic details and gain deeper insight into their cultural contexts.

The Pockets of Light program also played a notable role within this trajectory. Through a series of sessions, the program explored the stories of crafts and their evolution across eras, examining their contribution to enhancing quality of life while underscoring the importance of safeguarding traditional crafts and professions as an authentic cultural legacy passed down through generations.

For Ithra, 2025 marked a year of intensified engagement with the Year of Handicrafts across its programs and exhibitions, creating meaningful opportunities for artisans to actively participate and share their expertise with visitors and audiences. This approach reflects Ithra’s ongoing efforts to elevate this heritage and support its place as an integral component of national identity and cultural legacy.