Center for World Culture Emerging - Saudi Aramco

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They call it the center of the Center. It’s small compared to many other aspects of the Cultural Center, but it holds a key position. It’s the Keystone. “The Keystone is a place, but it’s also an idea,” said Fatma Al-Rashid, Keystone founding leader. “It’s meant to promote creativity in everyday life.” “From where the Keystone is located, you can look through an opening called the “Eye” and see all the way to the Center’s ‘Source,’ where the foundation of the Kingdom’s prosperity, oil, is celebrated,” Al-Rashid says. The Keystone is the Center’s font of creation and innovation. There, ideas will be brought to life through an “idea translation” process that will result in potentially patentable, commercial products with vibrant exhibits. Developed by the Center, the process is one in which interdisciplinary collaboration and experimentation all feed into the creative ecosystem the Keystone is planning to develop. While the place has yet to be built, the idea has taken off. A Keystone pilot project was launched this past spring in partnership with Harvard’s Arts Science Laboratory, a global leader with a track record in idea development. According to Keystone coordinator Nourah A. Tubayyeb, seven young professionals were selected through a rigorous application process to participate in the carefully structured project-based program, which is primarily designed to develop local capacity for cultural creativity and social innovation. During Phase 1, program participants took an intensive five-week Idea Translation Course at the Engineering School at Harvard University and underwent additional training at the Cloud Foundation in Boston. After conducting research and making concept presentations before their colleagues, the Keystone participants unveiled two innovative project ideas for how to combat the shortage of water. The Keystone program will inspire a wave of creativity with youthful spirit. During Phase 2, the program participants worked collaboratively with some 20 subject matter experts in Dhahran to develop their ideas further, and create project prototypes and business plans. Phase 3 took them to Le Laboratoire, an affiliate of ArtScience labs. There, they worked with exhibition designers, intellectual property lawyers and venture capitalists to prepare project exhibits, investigate commercialization and register legal rights. The inspiring result is a set of two completely innovative, Center of the Center Keystone to empower people to creatively ‘make things happen’ commercially attractive, and popular products. Both are already drawing the attention of domestic and international funders. They are also, as part of the overall plan, proving to be quite successful in advancing the Keystone’s larger mission to build a creative ecosystem. Where the Keystone pilot program is project-based, the Keystone Think Tank, an event-based program, is designed to spread and nurture creativity on different fronts by creating ripple effects to build up a local and global creativity network. The Think Tank program will be hosting events with international partners, such as TED, which co-hosted a forum at Saudi Aramco this summer, and the Kauffman Foundation, which granted Keystone participants exclusive rights to its patented Startup Weekend program in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, based on the success of the pilot program. A bi-annual Creativity Award is planned to acknowledge leaders in the field of creativity and innovation vation in the Kingdom and the world. The Keystone sights are clearly set on the future of Saudi Arabia as a world leader in creativity. If the success of its pilot program and events are any measure, it will not be long before the world begins to take note of Saudi Arabia’s creativity. Above left: Harvard Professor and Keystone partner Dr. David Edwards addresses Keystone participants and lecture attendees in his presenta tion “Creating The Future.” Left: Nasser A. Al-Nafisee, Public Affairs general manager, encourages the first participants of the Keystone pilot program at the “Creating The Future” lecture. Winter 2011 21
22 Dimensions International The Center ICONIC KING ABDULAZIZ CENTER FOR WORLD CULTURE WILL LIGHT THE WAY — TO THE PAST, THE FUTURE DHAHRAN — When you talk to employees of the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, one phrase you hear time and again is “iconic vision.” Their vision is for a landmark institution that honors the Kingdom’s past, lives in the present and projects into the future. Physically, it will stand out as an architectural icon, but inside and outside, it will be a home not only of learning but also of ideas, innovation and productive collaboration. Fatma Al-Rashid, head of Design and Construction Interface for the Center, says it is rooted in the initial source of prosperity, oil, but goes on to say that the Center embodies the vision that in the present and future, prosperity will come from people and ideas. “The building itself is a carrier of the vision,” she said. “Creativity, knowledge sharing and cross cultural engagement, these goals are in every aspect of the building.” The project is not only iconic with its structure, but with its content and programs. More than 50 programs covering diverse interests are being developed to keep the Center vibrant with edutainment activities and continuously attractive with high impact content. There will be something for everyone. Two million physical and 8 million online visitors are planned for annually. All in all, the King Abdulaziz Center aspires to be a benchmark for the museums and the cultural centers of the future. “You might expect galleries and museums to be all about objects, and though the Center will have 500,000 books and will exhibit historic objects (see related story, page 26) and works of art, the objects are meant to inspire people and tell the story of the company, the Kingdom and the world,” says Fuad F. Al-Therman, Director of the Center. We are an ideas-based Center rather than an object-based Center,” he said at the March 30, 2011 meeting of the Steering Committee. “The technology will be the back bone ... enabling the knowledge to touch and interact with visitors, volunteers and members of staff.” The first step in realizing the Cultural Center vision was a design competition led by Nasser A. Al-Nafisee, General Manager of Public Affairs. The resulting design by Snohetta of Norway draws its inspiration from the culture and environment of Arabia. The building takes the shape of pebbles randomly piled together, suggesting the region’s occupation with geology and the rocks that preserve petroleum energy. Continued on page 27 Below: The Cultural Center’s facade, unlike any other in the world, will be clad in 1,000 tons of stainlesssteel tubes. Opposite page: A view across the Center’s Museum Galleries. By Paul Sauser
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