Arts Alula Announces Name And Vision Of Forthcoming Arts Institution, Marking A New Chapter In Alula’s Cultural Journey
Arts AlUla has officially revealed the name and further details of its upcoming major art institution, the AlUla Contemporary Art Museum, marking a new era for global artistic dialogue rooted in the ancient cultural oasis of north-west Saudi Arabia.
The announcement took place during the opening of Arduna, AlUla Contemporary Art Museum’s landmark pre-opening exhibition, staged as part of the fifth edition of the AlUla Arts Festival 2026 and developed in collaboration with Paris’s Centre Pompidou.
Conceived with a bold and unbounded vision, the forthcoming Museum stands at the intersection of millennia-old heritage and the ideas shaping tomorrow’s art world. It is a space where the past’s deep rhythms meet today’s revolutionaries of contemporary art and where local roots nurture global ambition.
From its inception, the Museum has been designed as more than only a physical institution. AlUla Contemporary Art Museum will be a platform for engaging audiences through exhibitions, commissions, research, publications and residencies ahead of its physical opening, when it will become a key pillar of AlUla’s social and creative fabric.
A philanthropic partnership with Centre Pompidou includes the opportunity to have Centre Pompidou provide a strategic advisory role in the development of the new institution.
The contemporary art museum will sit under the palm canopy of the AlUla Oasis, and in an intersecting cultural quarter.
Every aspect of the Museum’s vision draws from AlUla’s extraordinary heritage, a cultural crossroads for millennia, a nexus of the ancient Incense Road where the exchange of ideas, trade, and creativity shaped early civilisations. Here, art is embedded in the landscape, carried in the voices of the community, and enriched by a dialogue of equals between international, regional and Saudi artists.
A NEW VOICE IN THE GLOBAL ART CONVERSATION
The Museum’s mission is to inspire and challenge, building bridges between artists across continents while creating meaningful opportunities for Saudi and regional voices to shape 21st-century cultural discourse. A multitude of strategic collaborations, such as its collaboration with the Centre Pompidou, will reflect the Museum’s commitment to a truly international exchange, one that elevates local creativity in a global context.
Distinctively, the Museum will collect and present collective research which include complete bodies of work, revealing the full arc of an artist’s journey from early concepts and private sketches to final works and archives. This approach offers visitors deeper insight into the impulses, struggles, and inspirations behind each creation, positioning the museum as both a curator of art and a guardian of artistic legacies.
ARDUNA: AN EARLY GLIMPSE OF THE MUSEUM’S SPIRIT
The unveiling of the museum’s name coincides with Arduna, a major pre-opening exhibition co-curated with the Centre Pompidou and supported by the French Agency for AlUla Development (AFALULA). Meaning “our land” in Arabic, the exhibition brings together more than 80 works from Saudi Arabia, the wider Middle East, and the world, exploring humanity’s evolving relationship with nature.
From Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky to Manal AlDowayan, Ayman Zedani, and Etel Adnan, Arduna sparks conversations across generations and geographies. New commissions by Ayman Zedani, Dana Awartani, Tarek Atoui, Tavares Strachan, and Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil further reflect the Museum’s commitment to fostering work rooted in the landscapes and narratives of AlUla.
The future home of the museum will be designed by architect Lina Ghotmeh, selected through an international competition that sought the most visionary approach for the museum’s setting. Drawing on in‑depth historical research into AlUla’s 7,000 years of continuous civilizations, Ghotmeh’s initial designs root the museum within the rhythms of its landscape.
Conceived in symbiosis with nature, the architecture will unfold as a series of carefully placed interventions, creating spaces that awakens memory, stirs the senses, and forges a deep connection between art, place, and the people who inhabit it.
HAMAD ALHOMIEDAN, DIRECTOR OF ARTS & CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AT THE ROYAL COMMISSION FOR ALULA (RCU)
“The unveiling of the AlUla Contemporary Art Museum marks an extraordinary moment in our revitalisation of the arts in AlUla. Conceived from the very heart of our landscape and community, The Museum is a new voice in the global conversation, a place where our ancient heritage meets the most ambitious ideas of contemporary art.
Through bold commissions, landmark exhibitions, and deep collaborations, we are building a platform that elevates Saudi and regional voices into meaningful dialogue with the world. We look forward to welcoming our community, partners, and visitors from around the world to witness the rise of a museum that will shape artistic discourse for generations to come.”
CANDIDA PESTANA Chief Curator and Head of AlUla Contemporary Art Museum
“From the very beginning, our vision for the AlUla Contemporary Art Museum has been to create a space where the richness of our heritage fuels new ideas, and where dialogue between artists transcends borders and generations. The Museum is rooted in AlUla’s extraordinary landscape and its role as a meeting place of cultures. We want visitors to feel that connection in every encounter with the art.
Building on previous pre-opening exhibitions and commissions, Arduna offers the public an early glimpse of this vision in action. By bringing together global, regional and Saudi talents in profound conversation with AlUla’s history and environment, Arduna is a celebration of our creative identity, an invitation to imagine new possibilities for the future and a living embodiment of the Museum’s curatorial vision at its most ambitious and inclusive.”
The unveiling of AlUla Contemporary Art Museum and the launch of Arduna mark another chapter in AlUla’s cultural journey that will continue to evolve in the years ahead. As AlUla’s new home for contemporary art, the museum will grow through the voices, ideas, and collaborations it nurtures, connecting the depth of its local heritage with the innovations shaping the global art landscape.
