The five-month competition will provide more than 200 students with workshops and intensive training courses The ministry is seeking to enhance the status of Arabic calligraphy and raise the spirit of student competition RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture announced it was launching a national competition to bring together creative fashion students to compete to present the best design. The WEAVINK competition, which will be held remotely, is being held in cooperation with the Fashion Commission, the “Year of Arabic Calligraphy 2021” initiative and the Ministry of Education, and is directed at university and scholarship students specializing in design, fashion and other art departments outside the Kingdom. “The competition will be organized as a unique international opportunity for the Kingdom to rediscover the heritage of fashion design and open the way for 200 designers to join the intensive training camp in the first phase, given that it is deeply rooted in Saudi heritage,” the ministry said in a statement. The ministry is seeking to enhance the status of Arabic calligraphy, spread its culture, develop its arts, and raise the spirit of student competition and participation by drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of Arabic calligraphy as a basis of their designs, including designing women and men’s fashion, children’s clothing, shoes and jewelry. The five-month competition will provide more than 200 students with workshops and intensive training courses, at the end of which participants will receive certificates of completion from the Fashion Commission, provided that the committee evaluates their digital portfolios. The committee will also nominate 10 participants to develop initial designs before choosing the best designs. The competition consists of six main stages, starting with the announcement and registration stage, including the registration period from Oct. 12 to Nov. 2, then preparing the virtual camp, filtering the 200 participants, and announcing the candidates. The second phase, the “Beginning of the Contest,” will start on Nov. 6 and includes four virtual seminars, followed by the portfolio delivery phase on Jan. 2, 2022, and announcing the finalists on Jan. 22-23. The next phase is related to planning and sustainability and will include five advisory sessions from Jan. 31 to Feb. 27, and the the competition concludes with participants delivering the final pieces on March 1-2, judging the works on March 7-22, before the winners are announced on March 22-24. The WEAVINK competition is part of the initiatives of the Quality of Life Program, one of the programs to achieve the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, through which the Ministry of Culture aims to develop the fashion industry, support and empower local designers, and direct them toward innovation in the uses of Arabic calligraphy, its creative arts and mixing it with local fashion.