Sculptors from Saudi Arabia and around the world can now apply to take part in the eighth Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium, which Riyadh Art, a project of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, will stage in the capital in early 2027 under the theme “Deep Within the Roots”.

The application window runs from October 18 to November 8, 2026. Curators will pick 20 artists to produce works in Riyadh. Candidates need at least three years of professional experience in sculpture, in showing their work and in delivering public art commissions.

The curatorial team brings together British curator and art producer Aldo Rinaldi, British-Italian curator, artistic director and cultural strategist Auronda Scalera, and Saudi artist, researcher, academic and curator Dr. Soha Al-Zaid. The trio will set the edition's artistic direction and choose the participants.

The theme looks at the layers of land, memory and culture that shape a place and how they relate to its changes, treating roots as a source of growth and of the power to reshape a place, not only as a tie to the past. Materials will include granite, metals, decorative breeze blocks, mosaics and cement. Stone carvers may work with Saudi granite in Royal Gold, Green and Royal Pink, as well as black basalt.

The symposium's director at the commission said the public can follow the creative process up close as artists work side by side on large-scale pieces, describing each sculpture as a shared experience that strengthens the city's bond with art.

Visitors can watch the artists at work over three weeks, alongside school and university visits, hands-on workshops and talks on art, sculpture and urban planning. A public exhibition closes the event, after which the works are placed around Riyadh as part of the permanent collection of Riyadh Art, launched in 2019. Applications are submitted through the symposium page on the Riyadh Art website.