By Manal Abdel Fattah
Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, Sultan of Oman, laid the foundation stone for the Oman Cultural Complex, at Airport Heights in Muscat Governorate, which represents a new addition and an Omani civilizational, cultural, scientific and intellectual achievement, and an institutional entity to be one of the edifices of modern Oman.
The complex will contain three important national institutions in one facility, and will serve as a vital space dedicated to collecting, preserving and displaying living, historical and contemporary arts and culture in the Sultanate of Oman.
The Oman Cultural Complex building consists of 3 main buildings (the National Theater, the National Library, and the National Records and Archives Authority), in addition to 8 buildings for the complex’s facilities.
The construction cost amounts to 147 million and 800 thousand Omani riyals, with a total area of the project land amounting to 400 thousand square meters, while The total construction area of the project components is 80,200 square meters.
The complex will contribute to the advancement of cultural, literary, theatrical, and research work, enhance activities, events, and programs, develop areas of work, and preserve the national memory of the history and achievements of the Sultanate of Oman.
It includes a number of components, namely: the National Theater, the National Library, the Children’s Library, the House of Arts, the Cinema House, the Literary Forum, the National Documents and Archives Authority, and halls for the plastic arts. In addition to providing restaurants, cafes and public garden services.
The objectives of the complex are to advance cultural and literary work, develop areas of activity, enhance the ministry’s plans, and facilitate the implementation of the cultural strategy to serve the community.
The complex will supervise and follow up on governmental and private cultural centers and institutions, and work to build their capabilities and enable them to perform their roles, raise their competencies and capabilities, and develop plans and programs for those centers.
In the governorates and states of the Sultanate of Oman, in addition to providing scientific and intellectual research services to scholars and researchers through two important institutions: (the National Records and Archives Authority, and the National Library).
The National Library in the complex, which will be built on an area of 23,500 square meters, will work on acquiring literary and intellectual production, setting specifications and standards, collecting data and preparing rules for it.
The library, which has the capacity to accommodate up to a million volumes, will play an important role in serving researchers and exchanging information sources locally.
Internationally, it will contribute to raising the efficiency of existing private libraries and provide the technical expertise necessary to develop their fields of work.
The National Theater in the complex, which will be built on an area of 16,500 square meters, with a hall that can accommodate (1,000 seats), seeks to advance theatrical plans and programs and develop training programs to bring about a qualitative leap in developing the fields of theatrical work, enhancing the roles of theater on the Omani, Arab and international scene, developing the capabilities of young people and providing opportunities. To train them.
The National Theater will work to integrate theatrical activity widely into student activities and programs and school curricula, and contribute to the supervision and follow-up of theatrical programs and activities in coordination with theatrical associations and groups, and work to make theater an effective tool in serving the government’s programs and goals by working to spread awareness among members of society. In addition to holding local and international theater festivals within the Sultanate of Oman.
