Nestled next to the DQ’s largest park, Yamamah, is Al Mashtal, which means ‘The Nursery’ in Arabic. The elegantly designed and effortlessly calm creative community space was founded by Noura al Saud and Ala’a Ghanimah to support Saudi Arabia’s creative community, providing them with a nurturing environment to grow their creative endeavours from a side hustle to a full-time career.
As I walked through Al Mashtal’s large red gate, there was an instant sense of peace and security. From the swings in the front courtyard, to the sound of music being recorded in the creative studio, to the eclectic selection of art and design books nestled around bean bag clusters in the library, Al Mashtal exuded a sense of quiet and calm. The space felt welcoming but also fostered a sense of independence: I immediately got the impression that creatives could come here to think and create, away from the distractions of the rest of the world.
The creative industries in Saudi Arabia are enjoying a frenzy of activity at the moment, particularly since the creation of the Ministry of Culture and its eleven commissions, which are designed to foster creative development within Saudi Arabia in all areas from fashion and art to literature and heritage. Since the opening of cinemas in 2018, Saudis have been able to both enjoy and create film and visual arts in their own country, enabling them to share their stories and have their voices heard in the rest of the world. But creatives, and the creative industries, still face several barriers to development: lack of support systems, infrastructure and engagement. I was curious to see how Al Mashtal, which was set up before the launch of the Ministry of Culture and is independent of the government, was working to support creatives and boost the creative industries from its hub in the Diplomatic Quarter.
Sitting down in one of the communal work areas with co-founder Ala’a Ghanimah, I asked her about how a beautiful space like this came to be, what it offers the creative community, and what its ambitions for growth are.
What is the story of Al Mashtal? How did it start and where did the idea come from?
I met my co-founder Noura al Saud at a postgraduate program in Amsterdam in 2017 and we started discussing and sensing what Saudi Arabia and the region needed to boost their creative economies.
Noura and I are often inspired by nature, so we came up with the name Al Mashtal, which means ‘nursery’, or ‘plant nursery’ in Arabic. We wanted to create a space that gave creatives the right environment, the right nourishment, to grow their ideas and their businesses and put down roots outside of the nursery.
What does Al Mashtal offer to its members and to the wider creative community?
Our audience is incredibly diverse, ranging from creative professionals to government entities that are related to the creative economy to corporations and businesses. We offer curatorial services to businesses, community and networking programs, exhibitions and design challenges. We also offer residencies for small businesses – right now we’re hosting the Noor Riyadh design team and the record label KNZ LAB.
Our flagship offering is our twelve-week incubation program, called the RY Jumpstart Incubation Program. It is available to creative professionals, providing them with training and networking to allow them to take their business from a side hustle to a full-time career. The first stage is called Jumpstart and helps creatives to establish their unique selling point, show them how to present it as a pitch and business model. We develop their personal skills as well as their business acumen, matching them up with mentors. The culmination of the program is a pitch session where they present their ideas to investors, stakeholders and entities that are related to their projects.
We also host a lot of events to bring our network together and expand it to new people. Exhibitions, events, music concerts – last year we worked with the EU cultural coalition and the Goethe Institut to host an urban hackathon, which challenged teams to design new sustainable urban concepts and solutions. We regularly launch design challenges for the creative community to engage them, understand them better, and provide a platform for their products.
We also have a shop within the Al Mashtal space which sells local and regional artisanal products, such clothes and cushion covers by Inaash, a Palestinian embroidery design company.
I’ve got a tough question for you – how do you define creativity?
That’s actually a beautiful question! We strongly believe that creativity is not a job description, but a mindset. Creativity can be applied in any profession – from the mother who always knows how to make a delicious meal for her family from leftovers, to the physicist who pioneers a new scientific method. Anything that involves out-of-the-box thinking is creativity. We are trying to push the boundaries of what it means to be creative and what creative skills can contribute to society and the economy.
Why did you choose to put down roots in the DQ? What drew you to this place?
The Diplomatic Quarter is a unique hybrid of local and international culture, which we feel mirrors the reality of current Saudi culture. Saudi Arabia has a beautiful youth demographic who are globalized digital natives. They are oriented towards an international outlook with a local mindset, which we see reflected in the environment of the DQ. Here, we’re a little secluded from the noise and pollution of central Riyadh, we have space to walk around in a natural landscape and we can feel free to express ourselves creatively.
A lot of what we do in the cultural field is related to cultural exchange, so being in the DQ is a great enabling environment for cultural attaches to engage with the culture, but also for locals to have that exposure and be able to exchange their point of view with international culture. When you want to drive creativity and create impact, you have to have this openness to different points of view, exchange opinions, and harness all of this in a safe space.
We found this building in 2019, after the schools that used to be in the DQ were moved outside the area and the buildings they used to use were abandoned. This building used to be a kindergarten for children with Down Syndrome – as soon as we visited we fell in love with the spirit, the layout, the beautiful building style and authentic materials. We decided this was the perfect place to launch our incubator.
It took us a few years to finish construction (we were interrupted by the pandemic) but even before we were able to open the building, we were starting to activate our concept. We had been working on establishing our network since 2017, so in January 2020 we launched our ‘Souvenirs Challenge’, tasking designers with designing and launching six unique souvenir products. After that, we hosted talks and activities through other spaces, until Al Mashtal was ready.
For more information or to join Al Mashtal’s creative community, visit their website https://www.almashtal.io/ or follow them on Instagram @almashtal.house
