Ithra announces the return of Tanween

Since 2018, Tanween has served as Ithra’s most impactful annual event dedicated to designing, motivating, and inspiring a new generation of innovators. With over 265,000 visitors, the conference spotlights Ithra as a global design platform, showcasing diverse design voices worldwide.

The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) is pleased to announce the return of its most impactful annual design conference, Tanween, which will run from 31 October to 6 November. In its 7th edition, Tanween 2024 will take place at the Ithra Theater under the ‘Fail Forward’ theme. It is an invitation to celebrate the setbacks within the design process, which, when embraced, allows creatives to reach breakthroughs that push the boundaries of design.

Tanween 2024 will feature an engaging program of panel discussions, masterclasses, and workshops. Global industry experts and emerging talents will exchange, discuss, and highlight innovations and creative breakthroughs born from creative challenges. This year’s speakers include world-renowned artist Ross Lovegrove, whose works are exhibited at MoMA in New York and The Pompidou Center in Paris, tech designer and public artist Sebastian Errazuriz, and Dubai Design Week curator Rana Salam.

Tanween is a catalyst for design innovation in the kingdom and beyond, engaging the wider design community - from experts, practitioners, students, and passionate visitors - to expand their creative horizons and advanced design practices to enrich our society. Ithra is proud to act as the nexus and meeting point for innovators worldwide during the Tanween Creativity Conference to facilitate a fruitful exchange of ideas and the development of constructive, impactful design solutions.

Shahad Alwazani, Program Lead: Tanween

This Tanween edition will also offer a space dedicated to exhibitions of cutting-edge design pieces and products developed through Ithra’s Creative Solutions Residency Program and Tanween Challenges. Embracing this year’s theme, a new international exhibition titled Behind the Curtains: Scenes of Craft, designed and curated in collaboration with Italian design platform Isola Studio, will invite visitors to immerse themselves in the creative journeys of ten internationally acclaimed design studios specializing in crafts, circular design, or material research.

Over the years, Tanween has become Saudi Arabia’s most influential design and creativity conference. It fosters cross-cultural dialogue between emerging creatives, international experts, and institutions and is a key global platform for innovative design incubation.

The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) is a world-class destination and the heart of Saudi Arabia’s creative and culture industry. It contributes to its prosperity by enabling talent, supporting content production, encouraging cross-cultural exchange, and promoting social harmony and human development. Ithra is Saudi Aramco’s most ambitious CSR initiative and the largest cultural contribution to the Kingdom. Through a compelling series of programs, workshops, performances, events, exhibitions, and other various initiatives, Ithra creates world-class experiences that bring together culture, innovation, and knowledge designed to appeal to everyone. Ithra’s components include the Idea Lab, Library, Theater, Museum, Cinema, Great Hall, Energy Exhibit, Children’s Museum, and Ithra Tower.