Italian Curator Cecilia Ruggeri to Lead New Misk Art Institute Space in Riyadh by 2025

The Misk Art Institute in Riyadh will open a new exhibition space in 2025, curated by 29-year-old Italian Cecilia Ruggeri. The institute, founded in 2017 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is a semi-governmental organization focused on empowering youth in arts and culture. Ruggeri, an art historian and curator at MAI for a year, was given carte blanche to organize the collateral exhibition 'Tales of Nostalgia' during the sixth Misk Art Week (December 5–10, 2022). The exhibition, running until January 15, 2023, features 12 artists from Saudi Arabia and abroad, including Italian collective fuse, exploring nostalgia through machine learning and AI. The week included exhibitions in an 1980s mall, conferences, masterclasses, workshops, performances, a design market, and a creative forum with PhMuseum Lab from Bologna. The third Misk Art Grant awarded 1 million Saudi riyals ($266,632) to six emerging artists and collectives from the Arab world. The new space will be part of the Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Noprofit City in the Irqah district, a 3.4 km² nonprofit hub for youth innovation. The institute also publishes 'The Art Library' series with Rizzoli on modern and contemporary Arab artists.