The UAE’s Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development Noura Al-Kaabi was on hand to attend the opening of Saudi Arabia’s first pavilion at the seminal Venice Biennale art fair in eight years. The minister, who toured the pavilion alongside Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Culture Prince Badr, spoke to Arab News and lauded the pavilion’s focus on women as a driving force for artistic change. “I’m really thrilled and happy to be here today with the presence of his royal highness Prince Badr, the minister of culture,” she said. “The Saudi pavilion having a showcase for the first time (in eight years) at the art biennale is a truly wonderful step and a milestone. It is an honor to see how Saudis are contributing to the art scene, especially in Venice, to tell the world their stories,” she added. “What inspired me is that the curator is a woman, the artist is a woman and the advisor is a woman and there’s a beautiful story that the artist took a holiday off to create this beautiful pavilion and… her husband also took a holiday to support her. That shows integrity, that shows art culture and that shows movement that we will see more of in Saudi Arabia,” she noted. The minister also commented on the fact that the UAE’s national pavilion happens to be next to Saudi Arabia’s. “It shows the bond, the joint vision and the joint mission to work together and to help inspire the next generation of artists in the region,” she told Arab News.