Minister of Culture Launches Initiative to Support Communities in Restoring Heritage Towns and Transforming Them into Cultural and Economic Hubs

Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan announced, at the conclusion of the Non-Profit Cultural Sector Forum organized by the Ministry of Culture at the King Fahd Cultural Center in Riyadh, an initiative to support local communities in restoring heritage towns. The announcement was made in the presence of several officials, cultural figures, leaders, and members of non-profit cultural sector organizations, along with representatives from relevant government entities and donors from individuals and the private sector.

In his speech during the closing session, His Highness emphasized that the cultural sector receives continuous support and empowerment from the wise leadership, noting that the Non-Profit Cultural Sector Forum celebrates an "exceptional journey of impact partners."

The Minister of Culture pointed out that the non-profit cultural sector has witnessed a historic transformation under the Kingdom's Vision 2030 and the Ministry of Culture's strategy for the non-profit sector. The number of its organizations has increased from 30 to over 1,650, with 20,000 volunteers contributing one million volunteer hours. Support programs exceeding 340 million riyals have empowered the sector and enhanced its ability to produce and influence.

His Highness affirmed that the Kingdom's values, heritage, and culture represent strengths for the non-profit cultural sector, highlighting that local communities across the Kingdom have contributed to restoring about a thousand architectural heritage sites.

The Minister announced a new initiative to support local communities in restoring heritage towns, aiming to enhance community contribution in preserving valuable heritage assets and rehabilitating them. In its first year, the initiative targets the restoration of several heritage villages through an innovative support model that provides financial support matching that of non-profit organizations, enabling owners of heritage towns wishing to restore and rehabilitate their towns at their own expense.

His Highness explained that the initiative crowns an effective partnership between government work represented by the Heritage Authority and community work, to preserve heritage towns in various regions of the Kingdom, stimulate efforts to develop, manage, activate them, and transform them into cultural and economic tributaries contributing to local community development and preserving architectural identity. The application process for the initiative will be announced in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The closing session of the forum reviewed the achievements of the non-profit cultural sector since the Ministry of Culture announced the non-profit cultural sector strategy in 2021, which included a package of developmental and enabling initiatives for non-profit cultural organizations.

The achievements included the establishment and nurturing of professional associations and accelerating their growth, developing a comprehensive methodology to correct the status of literary clubs and associations, and launching the "Support for Performance" program to fund projects of various categories of impactful non-profit cultural organizations, contributing to their sustainability. The ministry also developed a framework to financially and administratively evaluate and classify these organizations and worked on developing several associations through annual plans and capacity-building and knowledge programs.

The Non-Profit Cultural Sector Forum organized 14 panel discussions over two days, with local and international experts and specialists participating. They discussed the reality of the non-profit cultural sector and its role in shaping the future in light of modern trends, the role of culture as a soft power, and the importance of empowering non-profit cultural organizations to build a sustainable cultural and economic impact.

The sessions addressed cultural cooperative models, the role of social responsibility in developing the non-profit sector, innovative cultural funding paths and prospects, the importance of effective and sustainable integration, and international cooperation in cultural empowerment, in addition to showcasing the enablers and opportunities provided by the Ministry of Culture for the sector and its organizations, and ways to develop institutional efficiency of non-profit cultural organizations.

The forum featured interactive initiatives and booths, including the "Knowledge Lab," which offered a series of specialized workshops on governance, impact measurement, and resource development to empower members of non-profit cultural organizations, as well as advisory sessions that provided individual guidance meetings with experts.

The forum also organized "360" meetings that enhanced communication and partnership building, and the "Inspiration Platform" that showcased inspiring experiences of non-profit cultural organizations, alongside the "Empowerment Gateway" that introduced participants to support programs and mechanisms for benefiting from them.

The Non-Profit Cultural Sector Forum is part of the Ministry of Culture's efforts to empower the non-profit cultural sector and support non-profit cultural organizations to enhance their cultural and societal impact, in line with the national cultural strategy under the umbrella of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.