Diriyah Art Futures: Emerging New Media Artists Programme 2026–2027

Diriyah Art Futures (DAF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, invites applications for its third Emerging New Media Artists Programme 2026–2027 — a fully supported, one-year creative production programme at the intersection of art, science, and technology.

Developed in collaboration with Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France, the programme provides emerging artists with access to cutting-edge professional equipment, a production budget, mentorship from prominent international digital artists, and a rich programme of theoretical, conceptual, and technical learning.

The programme is structured in two main phases

Phase 1 – Thematic Exploration (October – December 2026): Seminars, lectures, screenings and workshops led by artists and theorists. Themes include technology and materiality, internet and post-internet art, the body and technological transformation, nature and climate, human/non-human relationships, and mapping memory in the Arab world.

Phase 2 – Production and Mentorship (February – August 2027): Personalised mentorship while producing original artworks using DAF's state-of-the-art labs. Artists will have access to advanced audio-visual techniques, immersive reality, coding, sensing, machine learning, robotics, and spatial audio-visual environments. Tracks include Reality and Artificial Reality, Sound/Cinema/Immersive Creation, and Humans and Artificial Intelligence.

The programme concludes with a curated, juried exhibition at Diriyah Art Futures in September–October 2027.

Who can apply?

The programme is open to emerging creative practitioners from around the world, with a particular focus on those from the Middle East and North Africa. Applicants must be 35 years or younger and at the stage of completing a graduate or postgraduate degree, with experience in new media and digital art.

Set within the UNESCO World Heritage site of Diriyah, this is a remarkable opportunity to develop ambitious new media work in a world-class facility, alongside an international cohort of artists and scholars.