Founded 2025 | Abha, Saudi Arabia
A historic Asiri home will serve as the core of the Ahmed Mater Foundation.
The Ahmed Mater Foundation is an artist-led cultural institution based in the heart of Abha, Saudi Arabia. The Foundation is dedicated to nurturing creativity, preserving Asiri heritage, and empowering the next generation of Saudi artists. Through a dynamic program of arts education, exhibitions, residencies, and community engagement, the Foundation aims to bridge local traditions with global perspectives. Rooted in values of community, sustainability, and cultural exchange, it seeks to be a catalyst for artistic innovation and social transformation both in the region and internationally.
A boy stands on the flat, dusty rooftop of his family’s traditional house in the south-west corner of Saudi Arabia. With all his reach he lifts a battered TV antenna up to the evening sky. He is searching, like so many of his generation in the Kingdom, for ideas, for music, for poetry – for a glimpse of a different kind of life.
Ahmed Mater