Applications are now open for Diriyah Art Futures’ year-long programme in Riyadh, offering expert mentorship, funding, access to world-class facilities and the opportunity to present work in a final exhibition.

Diriyah Art Futures (DAF) has announced an open call for applications for the third cycle of its Emerging New Media Artists programme, set to launch in October this year. Set in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Diriyah, DAF is the MENA region’s first New Media and Digital Arts (creative work made using digital technologies) centre.

Developed in partnership with Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France and supported by the Saudi Museums Commission, the one-year programme offers participants access to cutting-edge professional equipment and facilities, a production budget and personal mentorship from prominent international artists.

Since launching in November 2024, the programme has supported emerging artists from across the region and internationally, providing a platform for the next generation of new media practitioners to develop ambitious new works. The programme has featured strong representation from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East and North Africa region, reflecting DAF’s commitment to amplifying regional voices in global conversations around art, science and technology. Phase 1 of the programme involves three months of thematic and conceptual explorations of cutting-edge topics, presented by artists and theorists through seminars, lectures, screenings and workshops. Some of the topics include Technology, Digitally and Materiality; Internet, Data and Post Internet; Nature, Climate, Environment and Societal Transformation; and Mapping Memory in the Arab World.

In Phase 2, participants will work personally under the mentorship of leading artists and scholars to produce new artworks using DAF’s world-class facilities, including advanced audio-visual techniques, immersive reality, coding, sensing, machine learning and spatial audio-visual environments. Artists are invited to explore a range of contemporary fields in New Media Arts, including reality and artificial reality; sound, cinema and immersive creation; and humans and artificial intelligence. The final artworks will be exhibited at DAF as a curated and juried outcome of the one-year programme.

Applications for the 2026 / 2027 Emerging New Media Artists Programme are open until May 31. Candidates should be aged 35 or under, at graduate or postgraduate completion stage and have experience in creating and developing New Media and Digital Art. Visit https://engage. moc.gov.sa/reg_forms/tracks/250 for further details, selection criteria and applying to the programme. ✤

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