The General Presidency for Youth Welfare was established in 1974 as an agency responsible for sports, culture and social activities. It licenses and subsidizes sports and literary clubs and is responsible for the construction of sports facilities for the benefit of sports clubs and the public. It also prepares both an annual and a five-year plan for the encouragement and development of the arts.
Within the Kingdom it organizes regular competitions and exhibitions. Abroad, it arranges exhibitions of Saudi Arabian art, to provide Saudi artists with an international forum and to strengthen cultural ties with the host countries. The Presidency has organized exhibitions of Saudi Arabian art in the following Arab countries – Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates – and outside the Arab world in India, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, Turkey, West Germany and the United States of America.
