This dissertation is an investigation into the museum culture in Saudi Arabia and how it compares to culture in the neighboring countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). A historical overview of the museum institution in general reveals how museums exist to serve specific purposes and interests. The study of museums in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia provides an example of how museums were developed for the purposes of cultural heritage preservation and are slowly progressing to the function of social transformation.

The dissertation is based on a qualitative interviewing study of museum administrators from five different types of institutions: a museum governing agency, a public museum, a semi-public museum, and a private museum spread across three regions in Saudi Arabia, as well as a non-Saudi museum from the GCC. The study explores how the museum concept is interpreted and applied, how museums are connected to their communities, how they balance between the museum objectives and the religious and social boundaries and, finally, the challenges they face today to grow a museum-going culture.

Museums were first established in Saudi Arabia in 1976. The museum of archeology and ethnography was opened in Riyadh with the purpose of "encouraging the scientific examination of the country's past" (Michael Rice and Co, 1980). Later in the 1970s, The Ministry of Education established six other museums of archeology and ethnography in six different cities across the Kingdom. In 1999, on the 100th anniversary of King Saud entering Riyadh, the National museum opened its doors to the public. Unlike most GCC countries that opened their national museums shortly after their independence, Saudi's National museum opened 67 years after its unification (Michael Rice and Co, 1980). With the lack of diversity of museums, and an emerging museum-going culture, this dissertation looks into recommendations on how to develop the relationship between museums and their communities in order to increase their impact and improve the cultural industry.