Venetia Porter is Curator of Islamic and Contemporary Middle East Department at the British Museum, and a leading figure in the field of Middle Eastern contemporary art. Porter made the purchase of an Ahmed Mater painting in 2003 on behalf of the British Museum, for the exhibition for Word into Art, the first comprehensive exhibition of contemporary Middle Eastern art, featuring over 90 artists of which Mater was one of only two Saudis included. Catherine David is currently head curator at the Direction des Musées de France and was previously curator at the Centre Pompidou. She has become a prolific curator on the Middle East art scene and recently curated the prestigious project Documenta X. She curated the Abu Dhabi Authority Culture and Heritage (ADACH) platform in the Venice Biennale and included Ahmed Mater as one of leading artists of the Gulf Linda Komaroff is Head Curator of Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Tim Mackintosh Smith is an award-winning British writer based in Yemen. He has written numerous books on his travels in the Middle East, and edited the infamous "Travels of Ibn Battutah." He has lectured at the Royal Geographic Society and hosted BBC documentaries on his travels. Ahmed Al Omran is a leading Saudi commentator with one of the most well-known and longstanding blogs on the Middle East. Has become a leading figure often touching on controversial, political, and societal matters, engaging Saudi youth in positive debate with over 4 million followers in Saudi Arabia alone. Aarnout Helb is the Founder and Director of the world’s first museum dedicated to contemporary art from Saudi Arabia, in in Amsterdam. Ashraf Fayyad is a published Palestinian poet and artist living in Abha, Saudi Arabia. Stephen Stapleton is an artist and founder of Edge of Arabia, a leading platform for promoting contemporary art from Saudi Arabia.