The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture "Ithra" concluded on the twenty-sixth of August, the first edition of the Youth Summer Program under the title: "Introduction to the Cultural Sector", which lasted for three weeks, and targeted the age group from 13 to 18 years, at the center's headquarters in Dhahran.

The program chose four cultural projects, whose owners had the opportunity to work within the center's programmatic structure for a whole year, out of a total of 17 creative projects submitted by the participants who joined the program; This is an extension of the center's role in supporting and empowering youth by developing their capabilities, developing their talents, expanding the circle of their cognitive and creative interests and raising the level of their participation in their communities.

The summer program provided participants with a deep vision of the basics of the cultural sector, enabling them to gain cumulative experience based on their interests, through 100 enrichment hours and 75 educational experiences, in which the fields of learning varied between meeting the center's expert specialists in the cultural field, such as museums, theaters, cinema and others.

The program also included various interactive meetings, workshops in several fields and daily open discussions through which the participants' cognitive horizons are expanded, and the participant's academic direction and requirements are known through the allocation of guidance sessions, in addition to training them during a full day and directly on the experience of working in several professions associated with the cultural sector, such as museum curator, librarian, and play guide in the children's museum and other cultural professions as diverse as the center's departments.

The program, which included different educational experiences presented in multiple methodological styles, reviewed stations for research and investigation, youth capabilities, cultural knowledge, and a package of ideas for initial projects and others that were developed, and different creative solutions, whether at the level of the cultural sector in general or at the level of the "Ithra" center in particular. Projects varied with the diversity of participants' interests and skills between products, initiatives and development projects.

All projects were presented to a specialized jury in the cultural and creative industry to evaluate them according to certain criteria and according to the requirements of the program's objectives. Four were chosen to be supported by the center, while the rest of the projects will be directed to other programs in "Ithra" to develop participants' skills and make them contributors to the sector continuously according to their age group, so that the center becomes a platform that embraces these talents and adopts their ideas and finds the fertile environment to implement these ideas on the ground, in addition to expanding the horizons of knowledge of cultural industry professions and deepening youth in the cultural and creative environment and experiences.

)Source: SPA(