For immediate release: 29 March 2010.
Major cultural exchange programme launched between UK and Saudi Arabia
HRH The Prince of Wales, President, The Prince’s School for Traditional Arts together with HRH Prince Khalid Al-Faisal bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, President, Painting & Patronage, launched the 10th anniversary Painting & Patronage Programme at a meeting in Wales today.
The Painting & Patronage Programme, run for the first time between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia during 2000 and 2001, is a cultural, artistic and educational outreach and student exchange programme. The purpose of the Programme, which will take place under the joint Presidency of HRH The Prince of Wales and HRH Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, is to build bridges of artistic and educational understanding between the Arab world and Europe and to establish a deeper understanding of each other’s distinct and diverse cultures and traditions.
The new programme will be delivered in the UK through a partnership of The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts and Painting & Patronage.
Central to the newly announced Painting and Patronage UK programme is a school and community outreach programme initially to be held in Burnley and London. Through a cross-curricula approach, which integrates art, maths and philosophy, schools and community groups will learn how to produce patterns from nature reflected in traditional art and design and will use these skills to collaboratively produce works of art. Through working together children from different schools and different cultural backgrounds share knowledge, experience, and learn about, and from, each other.
The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts will also host a Painting & Patronage exchange programme for students from Saudi Arabia to spend a year on the School’s postgraduate programme in London. Through a series of courses students are introduced to the arts of the world’s great traditions. Each course demonstrates the practical skills behind the craft and also the principles that are embodied in the forms themselves and in the process of making. By experiencing the traditional arts as living skills, both tutors and students participate in the regeneration of the universal principles at their heart.
Note to Editors
The Prince’s School is an educational charity which specialises in teaching, researching, and promoting the practice and theory of the arts and crafts of the world’s great traditions. The Director of the School is Dr Khaled Azzam, LVO. The website of PSTA is www.psta.org.uk
Painting & Patronage since its creation in 1999 has become a prominent Saudi Arabian cultural initiative organising summer schools, outreach programmes, exhibitions, lecture series and scholarships between Saudi Arabia and Europe. In 2007 it was granted the High Patronage of the Custodian of Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. HRH Prince Khalid Al-Faisal is the current Governor of Makkah Province. The Chairman of initiative is Mr Anthony Bailey, OBE. The website of Painting & Patronage is www.paintingandpatronage.com
Wales – 29 March, 2010.
