SMG says Saudi museums hub has potential to ‘support reform’
The Science Museum Group (SMG) says its new partnership with Saudi Arabia has the potential to support positive change and reform, despite concerns over the country’s human rights record.
The SMG announced last week that it had signed an agreement with the Saudi Arabian ministry of culture to create a new museums hub in Riyadh with the aim of increasing engagement in science and culture.
The partnership builds on a cultural memorandum of understanding signed by UK culture secretary and Saudi Arabia in 2022. The partnership was considered by the SMG’s partnership panel – a sub-committee of its board of trustees - and supported by the board.
SMG director Ian Blatchford told Museums Journal that the organisation had taken “considerable care” with the decision.
Blatchford said: “We take decisions about international partnerships with considerable care because some of the countries in which we work are not democracies, with human rights frameworks far below the standards we cherish.
“Internationalism is second nature for the Science Museum Group, both because of the power of cultural engagement and because collaboration between different nations has always been essential to addressing global challenges.
"Our clear view is that there is huge potential to support positive change and reform for people in Saudi Arabia by building science engagement amongst citizens and growing a strong, sustainable museums sector.”
In spite of some legal reforms in the country, human rights groups have raised alarm about worsening human rights violations by the Saudi authorities.
Previously, the SMG turned down a potential sponsorship agreement with a consortium that included the Saudi oil group, Aramco, partly due to concerns about human rights. A spokesman for the SMG told Museums Journal that the main reason for ending that conversation related to the company's record on low-carbon transition.
He said: “We assess prospective and current corporate partners using the Transition Pathway Initiative tool and Aramco did not meet the threshold we set at the time.”
The campaign group Culture Unstained, which works to eradicate fossil fuel sponsorship in the culture sector, has criticised the SMG's position on collaboration.
A spokesperson for the group said: "Just a few years ago, the museum rejected a potential sponsorship deal, in part, over its links to Saudi Arabia and concerns about the state’s rights record. But this collaboration appears to have been rapidly waved through and at a time when Amnesty International still concludes that Saudi Arabia’s human rights record is 'appalling'.
"From its defence of the rights-violating conglomerate Adani to this new collaboration, the museum’s stance does huge disservice to those communities around the world fighting for their rights."