Saudi Minister of Culture, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al-Saud assigned Stefano Carboni as the new CEO of the Museums Commission.
Stefano Carboni was the 11th director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, where he worked from 2008 to 2019. Prior to this, he was an administrator and the curator in the department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of art and visiting professor at the Bard Graduate Centre in New York.
After graduating from the University of Venice, majoring in Arabic and Islamic Art, he pursued his PhD from the University of London in Islamic Art, before joining the curatorial staff at the Metropolitan in 1992.
Stefano Carboni has led a large number of exhibitions during his time at the Metropolitan Museum. One of the most notable exhibitions is Venice and the Islamic World, 828-1797, held from 2006 to 2007. He has many publications to his name, including Glass of the Sultans (2001) and the prestigious Barr Award winner The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Arts and Culture in Western Asia (2002). Another publication is the catalogue of the Islamic glass collection in the Kuwait National Museum from 2001.
He is known to have lectured widely in the museum and taught courses in Islamic Art and Curatorial Studies on a daily basis at the Institute of Fine Arts (NYU), Hunter College ( CUNY), and the Bard Graduate Centre for the Decorative Arts in New York.
As the Museum Commission’s CEO, Stefano Carboni will be in charge of creating a strategy for the sector and handing out licences in the field. He will promote the funding and investment as well as adopting professional training programs. His responsibilities will also entail the designing of relevant educational programs and offering scholarships for talented people.
The Museum Commission will coordinate with relevant authorities to protect intellectual property rights in areas related to the museum’s sector. The Museums Commission is one of the 11 new cultural initiatives launched by the Ministry of Culture to improve the Saudi cultural industry and its various specialised areas.
The new CEO Stefano Carboni will make the existing museums of the Saudi Kingdom operate in a more collaborative manner, plan the creation of new museums and create strong national and international partnerships to align with the country’s 2030 vision.
The aim is to pay attention to all aspects of the tourism sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by contributing to the economy and enhancing the Kingdom’s position on an international platform. Focusing on the role tourism plays in an economy has helped the country overcome barriers impeding its growth. The efforts include preservation, development, and maintenance of antiquities, and encouraging the tourism industry’s contribution to cultural and economic development.
