The Misk Art Institute in Riyadh has doubled its annual art grant to a total of 1 million Saudi riyals ($266,666).
The foundation launched the Misk Art Grant in 2020, offering 500,000 Saudi riyals to five Saudi artists, who shared the prize pot between them. They have now extended the open-call to make all Arab artists eligible, and between three and 10 artists will be chosen in April by a panel. The artists will receive technical support for their project, as well as advice from the panel in addition to the funds.
Similar to last year, the resulting works will be included in a show during Misk Art Week in Riyadh in December 2021. The city-wide event is typically held across different outdoor and indoor venues, with the exhibition housed in the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Fine Arts Hall. The hall was built in 1985 to house local and international exhibitions, and was recently refurbished by Misk to serve as its cultural hub.
The winners in 2020 were Ayman Zedani, who works in video and installation; Muhannad Shono, who creates large-scale installations; Alaa Alghufaili, who works across art and industrial design; Hmoud Alattawi, who tracks the changes in Saudi Arabian art; and Saad AlHowede, a conceptual artist who also has a long-running career as a newspaper caricaturist.
This year's panel is comprised of Reem Fadda, the director of Abu Dhabi's Cultural Foundation; Laila Alfaddagh, the director general of Saudi Arabia's The National Museum; Myrna Ayad, a cultural strategist and former Art Dubai director; and Konstantinos Chatziantoniou, head of collections and conservation at the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture, also known as Ithra, in Dhahran.
The Misk Art Institute is a subsidiary of the Misk Foundation, which was established by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
