Civil Engineering and Architecture 10(3A): 86-92, 2022 http://www.hrpub.org
DOI: 10.13189/cea.2022.101311
Potential of Adapting Smart Cultural Model related to
Contemporary Art: The Case of Jeddah Open-Air
Sculpture Museum
Sema Refae
Department of Architecture, College of Architecture and Design, Effat University, Qasr Khuzam St., Kilo. 2, Old Mecca Road.
P.O.BOX 34689, Jeddah 21478, Saudi Arabia
Received September 15, 2021; Revised March 15, 2022; Accepted April 19, 2022
Cite This Paper in the following Citation Styles
(a): [1] Sema Refae , "Potential of Adapting Smart Cultural Model related to Contemporary Art: The Case of Jeddah
Open-Air Sculpture Museum," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 10, No. 3A, pp. 86 - 92, 2022. DOI:
10.13189/cea.2022.101311.
(b): Sema Refae (2022). Potential of Adapting Smart Cultural Model related to Contemporary Art: The Case of Jeddah
Open-Air Sculpture Museum. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 10(3A), 86 - 92. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2022.101311.
Copyright©2022 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License
Abstract Jeddah city has a great relationship with art
and sculptures since 1973 after the economy booming as an
outcome from the oil industry. Since then, Jeddah has been
branded as a ―City of Art‖ where famous international
artists display their sculptures around the squares and
streets. Municipalities and private authorities manage the
maintenance of these artifacts due to the environmental and
weather conditions. After four years of implementing a
massive project and creating an open space, the cultural
park museum now displays 20 sculptures. The objective of
this paper was to find and investigate a smart global
practice in museum, parks and find potentials of adapting
smart cultural vision towards Jeddah open park Sculpture
Museum as an intelligent platform. Searching for the
optimum solution will add value to the social and public
communities by communicating and sharing a smart social
platform, especially in the open sculptural museum in
Jeddah and uplifting the social and cultural impacts.
Keywords Smart Vision, Smart Trend, Smart Cultural
Platform, Open Museum
1. Introduction
Although Mediterranean immigrants flooded into
European cities due to high quality of life and many other
reasons, Jeddah still maintains an artistic history [1]. The
history of art in Jeddah city has a great relationship with art
and sculptures since 1973 when decided to blend art within
the development process by ordering and selecting
sculptures for famous international artists and distribute
around 600 artistic pieces around the squares, streets, and
boulevards to enhance the urban space of Jeddah city [2-4].
Branding Jeddah city as ―City of Art‖ was a reflection of
the art and artist booming in Saudi Arabia after graduating
the first batch from the Institute of Art in Riyadh that
enhanced the appearance of artist communities in the same
period a s the Saudi Community for Culture & Art at the
70s and the Saudi center for fine art in the 80s. In the last
ten years, many other art associations and art galleries in
Jeddah appears like Ather and Hafiz gallery and Art Jameel
[5].
At present, the Jeddah sculptures need maintenance
through the last 40 years due to the environmental and
weather conditions. Accordingly, the decision by the
Jeddah municipality along with the volunteering of Art
Jameel was taken to restore the sculptures and rearrange 20
restored artworks in a new settlement by creating an
open-air museum in a seven-square kilometer park along
the Jeddah Corniche, known locally as ‗Al Hamraa'. The
project was launched in September 2013 to community
recognition [5, 6].
Lately, the ―21,39‖ Jeddah Arts initiative was organized
by the Saudi Art Council by a group of local artist that