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H.E Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, President of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, is taking part in the Fifth session of the Cultural Summit, which will be held under the slogan “Culture is a way of life” in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi . This major cultural event is held from 23-25 October 2022, in order to explore the future of the culture sector and discuss creative cultural solutions to the most pressing global issues affecting on the world today.

H.E Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa made a keynote summit inaugural speech, along with another by Her Excellency Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth, United Arab Emirates and Mr. Ernesto Ramirez, Deputy Director-General for Culture of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

This year’s summit, under the theme “Culture is a way of life”, will discuss contemporary challenges that lead and drive change in the field of creative and cultural industries, and the broader cultural sectors in today’s world. The summit agenda addresses the concept of embracing culture as a living experience in a world that has undergone radical transformations imposed by the “Covid-19” pandemic, and a better understanding of the broad impact of culture on our individual and collective lives.
Through a variety of keynote speeches, panel discussions, lectures, presentations, and talks, the Summit dedicates the experiences of cultural leaders, artists, decision-makers, researchers, thinkers, educators and innovators to the study of these pressing contemporary issues. The agenda of the summit was organized so that each day included a study of one of the topics in more detail. On the first day, the summit will address the theme of “living cultural systems” from a sectoral perspective, discussing the emergence of more flexible, adaptable, and responsive living cultural and creative systems.
The Cultural Summit is organized by the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi in cooperation with a number of international partner organizations including UNESCO, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, The Economist Events, Design Museum London, the Recording Academy and other art, technology and media institutions from around the world.

This summit is a comprehensive dialogue forum, welcoming particularly three former Heads of State, together a group of leaders and pioneers from various cultural sectors and creative industries. The summit will also examine how the cultural and creative industries sector was forced to innovate in order to be able to face the great turmoil caused by the pandemic and how they can continue their mission in transforming societies and economies towards adopting a culture of innovation, knowledge production and openness to the world.