As the Executive Director of Arts and Creative Industries at the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), Nora Aldabal leads a team of creative, strategic and operational planners and enablers to craft the next chapter in AlUla’s legacy as a cradle of artistic inspiration. The team’s work is in dialogue with a global constellation of leaders and pioneers across the arts and design sectors, supporting a flourishing cultural landscape across the Kingdom.

She holds a bachelor's degree in Visual Communication from the American University of Sharjah and a master’s degree in Art Management and Curatorship from Boston University. Her studies have been a springboard for her 15 years of experience in the fields of art and design, developing and coordinating art galleries, working at entities such as the Centre Pompidou and Christie’s, and launching cultural diplomacy programs with both Ithra and the Saudi General Entertainment Authority.

Today, her focus is to cultivate the conditions that take AlUla’s legacy of cultural exchange and enrichment into the next millennia. Her aim is to push the boundaries of creativity, ambition and ingenuity through collaboration with visionaries, practitioners, industries and communities. Recent initiatives and platforms include Desert X AlUla, the AlUla Design Award, the art and design center Madrasat Addeera, and plans for major cultural assets such as the contemporary art museum to be designed by architect Lina Ghotmeh and Wadi Alfann – an awe-inspiring destination for site-specific work by international artists, permanently placed in the monumental landscape of AlUla.