Saudi Arabia suffers from a deficiency in artistic venues. Most galleries and studios are private and understated affairs. Art exhibitions, of which there are few, often take place in shopping malls rather than proper galleries. But the situation has been moving in a better direction for aspiring Saudi artists and art aficionados.
One of the contemporary efforts to promote the arts in the Kingdom is Al-Muftaha Village, the closest thing the Kingdom has to an artists’ colony, which is located in Abha. Founded in 1989, the organization offers studios and exhibition space, but until last year only male artists used the studios because of the social taboo about women working side by side with men.
But Artist Abdullah Shaher, a well-known local painter and director of King Fahd Cultural Center in Al-Muftaha Village, says the organization has recently made efforts to promote more women artists. “A year ago, the center approved studio space for women artists in Al-Muftaha,” said Shaher. “The number of women using the space has reached 15.”

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