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Saudi Arabia's Royal Institute of Traditional Arts Kicks Off Educational Programs

Saudi Arabia's Royal Institute of Traditional Arts Kicks Off Educational Programs
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Saudi Arabia's Royal Institute of Traditional Arts Kicks Off Educational Programs

Saudi Arabia's Royal Institute of Traditional Arts Kicks Off Educational Programs

The Royal Institute of Traditional Arts (RITA) in Saudi Arabia has kicked off its executive programs aimed at providing an innovative environment to develop potentials in Saudi traditional arts through educational, cultural, and social programs.

The institute's goal is to emphasize the national identity by enriching and promoting the traditional arts, in addition to motivating and training local skills and talents, and providing educational programs in this field.

The institute seeks to contribute to preserving the tangible and intangible assets of traditional arts, raising the level of awareness in the kingdom, promoting these arts locally and globally, and encouraging and supporting the efforts made to maintain them.

RITA has divided its educational programs into three categories: student programs, academic programs, and short courses. It offers many art-related majors including traditional visual arts, textiles and fashion, materials, construction, and books, in addition to studies in traditional performance arts such as popular dance and traditional music, as well as studies of museums, heritage, and antiquities.

In the first phase, the institute launched several courses to teach traditional arts including palm leaf weaving, one of the most popular arts in Saudi Arabia. It shed lights on how Saudis inhabiting agricultural regions adapted to their environment and improved their skills. Palm leaves are used to make chains and other products locals use in their daily lives.

It also plans to launch a course to teach "Al Sadu" weaving, an old Saudi art known with its catching colors and geometric patterns widely seen in tent embroidery. Al Sadu is usually weaved by assorting wool, lint, and animal hair into threads using a loom.

The institute will also provide a general course about UNESCO, its goals and missions, in addition to explaining its different conventions and programs aimed at supporting culture, including the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), and the 1972 World Heritage Convention. The course will enable the participants to study the Kingdom's cultural landmarks enlisted as "UNESCO's Intangible Heritage," in addition to the Saudi sites included in the agency's World Heritage List.

RITA plans to open several branches, but the biggest is located in "Al Murabba" neighborhood in Riyadh. The 3.350 square meters building includes 12 workshops, four classrooms, four ateliers, and a library.

Another large branch will be opened in Historic Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia, and will feature two workshops, three classrooms, and will recruit specialized technicians.

The King Salman Park is set to host the main campus as of 2025, which will feature four art academies, three cinema halls, an external theater, a cultural educational center, a national theater, and five specialized museums.

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Americans to Celebrate Fourth of July with Parades, Cookouts — and Lots of Fireworks

A child holds a US flag as she watches the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks in New York City, New York, US, July 4, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Purchase Licensing Rights
A child holds a US flag as she watches the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks in New York City, New York, US, July 4, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Purchase Licensing Rights
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Americans to Celebrate Fourth of July with Parades, Cookouts — and Lots of Fireworks

A child holds a US flag as she watches the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks in New York City, New York, US, July 4, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Purchase Licensing Rights
A child holds a US flag as she watches the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks in New York City, New York, US, July 4, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Purchase Licensing Rights

The hamburgers aren't the only things sizzling this Fourth of July: Millions of people are under heat warnings as large numbers of Americans traveled to toast their nation’s birth with parades, cookouts and fiery splashes of colors against the evening sky.

Travel records are projected to fall with people already jamming airports and crowding highways ahead of the Fourth of July to get to their destinations. Across the West, meanwhile, residents were dealing with stifling heat as the National Weather Service warned of a “significant and extremely dangerous” heat wave across much of the region, The AP reported.

Fireworks — a staple for the holiday — were expected to reach an all-time high with an untold number of backyard displays in addition to 16,000 professional shows lighting up the horizon from sea to shining sea.

“This is how we celebrate. It’s the bombs bursting in air. It’s the rockets’ red glare. That’s how people show their pride and patriotism,” said Julie Heckman of the American Pyrotechnics Association.

All signs pointed to big celebrations: The Transportation Security Administration reported that a record-breaking nearly 3 million people traveled through airports in a single day last week, and that figure is expected to be broken this week. And AAA projected that 60.6 million people will travel by car during the holiday period. Part of the boost was attributed to easing inflation, though many Americans remain concerned about the economy.

On the much of the West Coast, residents were advised to take precautions to avoid overheating on the holiday.

Temperatures were expected to top 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) across both coastal and inland areas of California, with heat spreading into the Pacific Northwest. Some spots in the desert Southwest were expecting temperatures topping 120 degrees ( 49 degrees Celsius). Hot, muggy conditions also permeated the Deep South and Middle Atlantic.

The Northern California city of Oroville’s annual fireworks were canceled as an estimated 26,000 residents remained displaced by the growing Thompson Fire, while hundreds of firefighters toiled under extreme heat to keep flames from reaching more homes.

Plenty of barbecue, desserts, cold drinks and the Stars and Stripes were on tap from Maine to Hawaii. But Americans were also celebrating in other ways unique to their communities.

Off the rocky coast in Down East, Maine, some planned to enjoy lobster boat races. Descendants of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were ringing the Liberty Bell 13 times — once for each of the original colonies — in Philadelphia. The California communities of Bolinas and Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco, were engaging in their annual tug-of-war contest in which losers end up in a lagoon.

And, of course, there’s the annual hot dog eating contest on New York’s Coney Island.

The July Fourth holiday generally unites Americans in their shared love of country, but the 2024 version comes against a backdrop of deep political polarization and a divisive presidential race.

In Boston, where tens of thousands were expected to enjoy the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular, maestro Keith Lockhart said it’s inspiring to see people of different political stripes gather on Charles River Esplanade. But he noted that “one would have to have one’s head pretty deeply stuck in the sand to not notice the deep divisions in our country.”

“It is, indeed, a dangerous time,” he wrote in an email before the show. “If, even for one day, we can set aside our differences and embrace our commonalities, this has to be a positive thing.”