Every cultural project is an arc. From the first idea of what a place might be, through the strategy that shapes it, the narrative that gives it meaning, and the experiences that make it felt, culture is built across a long trajectory.
The practice supports cultural institutions, foundations, and developers building places of consequence across the Middle East, Europe, and beyond.
Cultural strategy, placemaking and experience design.
Practice
Three connected domains, anchored in strategy.
Cultural strategy
Every cultural project rests on a set of strategic decisions: what it is for, who it serves, how it will sustain itself, how it will earn its place over time. The work develops the strategic and narrative foundation that makes cultural institutions, destinations, and place-based projects coherent and durable. It covers positioning, narrative, business and operating models, funding strategy, governance, and feasibility, drawing on twenty years of practice across mega-projects, museums, foundations, and cultural authorities.
Placemaking
How places come into being, and how they earn meaning over time. The work spans cultural districts, heritage regeneration and masterplan-scale development, bringing strategic and cultural intelligence to the question of what a place is for and how it should be made.
Experience design
Translating strategy and place into a sequence of human moments. The work covers concept development, visitor experience strategy, programmatic frameworks, and the sequence of how audiences encounter a place or institution over time.
A selection of engagements led by Navid across his career, prior to and during ARC Advisory.
Selected Work
Arts & Culture strategy - Red Sea Development Company, KSA
As Arts & Culture Director, led strategy for a portfolio of eleven megaprojects in Saudi Arabia, including AMAALA's $2B+ arts and culture programme, a contemporary art museum, an underwater archaeological museum, public art masterplan, and artist residency programme. Established the strategic partnership with MoC (KSA).
Multi-year engagement with Red Sea Development Company
Funding strategy - Saadiyat Cultural District, Abu Dhabi
Developed a funding strategy for Louvre Abu Dhabi, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and Zayed National Museum to maximize revenues from sponsorships, memberships, donations, and endowment funds. Included global benchmarking against leading museum funding models, stakeholder analysis, and financial modelling.
Client: Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi. Led through ARC Advisory
District regeneration - Al-Balad, Jeddah
Project team member on the strategic regeneration of Historic Jeddah, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The engagement covered the mandate for a new urban planning authority, the institutional and regulatory framework, strategic objectives and KPIs, organizational design, brand development, and private sector participation.
Client: Ministry of Culture KSA, Engagement at Strategy& (PwC)
Cultural week & diplomacy programme — Paris
Curatorial and experience strategy for a major cultural week at Grand Palais, Paris. Worked across audience positioning, spatial concepts, programming, operational feasibility, budgeting, and sponsorships.
Client: Confidential. Led at Insignia Worldwide
Traveling exhibition design — London, New York, Beijing
Curatorial and experience strategy for a travelling exhibition tied to a national milestone. Worked across concept development, audience positioning, spatial concepts, programming, operational feasibility, venue management.
Client: Confidential. Led at Insignia Worldwide
District Theming — Qiddiya, KSA
Multi-engagement work across two of Qiddiya's flagship districts; Large Festival Grounds and Downtown. Led narrative development, customer journey design, anchor feature definition, and architectural thematic direction.
Client: Qiddiya. Led at Insignia Worldwide
City-wide festival concept - MENA region
Concept development, strategy, governance, programming, and spatial approach for a city-wide cultural festival integrating multiple cultural commissions. Included feasibility, budgeting, partnerships and sponsorships.
Client: Confidential. Led at Insignia Worldwide
Cultural positioning & programming - Tilal Utique, Tunisia
Strategic cultural positioning and programming support for one of the leading private cultural foundations in the Arab world.
Client: Kamel Lazaar Foundation. Led at Insignia Worldwide
Placemaking strategy - Soudah Peaks, KSA
Destination positioning and visitor experience advisory for a cultural and heritage mountain destination, including segmentation, visitation modelling, gating strategy, and destination experience frameworks.
Client: Soudah Peaks Development Company. Led at Insignia Worldwide
Cultural center of excellence strategy — KSA
Strategic development of a cultural innovation capability, including governance, operating model, funding strategy, and implementation planning. Worked across multiple sector commissions to align approach and shared capacity.
Client: Ministry of Culture KSA. Led at Insignia Worldwide
Large-scale cultural activation conceptualisation — MENA region
Strategic visioning, creative development, and experience planning for a Royal ceremony and large scale performance. Included concept development, program architecture, venue assessments, feasibility, stakeholder alignment and budgeting frameworks.
Client: Confidential. Led at Insignia Worldwide
Visitor centre VX strategy - NGHC - KSA
Visitor experience and storytelling strategy for the corporate office and visitor centre. Translated a complex industrial subject into an immersive experience with thematic frameworks, persona-based journeys, and spatial choreography.
Client: NEOM Green Hydrogen Company. Led at Insignia Worldwide
About
ARC Advisory is the independent practice of Navid Niknejad, a cultural strategist with twenty years of experience shaping cultural infrastructure, destinations, and institutional programmes across the Middle East, Europe, and beyond.
The practice sits at the intersection of strategy and creative direction. Most cultural projects fail at one of three things: they don't know what they're really about, they can't translate that into a sequence of human experiences, or they get the atmosphere wrong. ARC works on all three together.
About the principal
Navid Niknejad is a Canadian strategist and creative director based between the Middle East and Europe. His career has spanned senior in-house roles, international consulting firms, and independent practice.
Prior to relaunching ARC Advisory, Navid was Head of Strategy at Insignia Worldwide, where he led strategy and creative direction on cultural infrastructure, visitor experience, and destination projects across the GCC and beyond. Engagements included work for Qiddiya, NEOM, the Saudi Ministry of Culture, Soudah Peaks, and cultural diplomacy programmes in Paris.
Before that, Navid served as Arts & Culture Director at the Red Sea Development Company, where he led the arts and culture strategy across a portfolio of eleven megaprojects in Saudi Arabia, including AMAALA's $2B+ arts and culture programme. He established the strategic partnership between the Red Sea project and the Saudi Ministry of Culture, covering a contemporary art museum, an underwater archaeological museum, public art installations, and an artist residency programme.
Earlier in his career, Navid was a Senior Associate at Strategy& (PwC) in Dubai, focused on cultural and tourism mega-projects in the MENA region. His work there included the strategic regeneration of a UNESCO World Heritage district in Saudi Arabia and the master planning of greenfield cultural and tourism districts across seven Saudi cities. He has also held positions at Efeso Consulting, Meraas Holding, and Dubai World.
Navid holds an MBA from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from York University.
Beyond the practice
Navid maintains an active artistic practice in painting and visual art, with exhibitions in New York, Toronto, and Dubai. In 2014, he completed an artist residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2013, he was selected by the British Council for their Cultural Leadership Initiative and awarded a grant to establish a non-profit focused on intercultural dialogue.
His personal interests in art, philosophy, and cultural production inform the work he chooses to take on through ARC.
Approach
ARC operates as a small, senior practice. Engagements are led directly by the principal, with trusted collaborators brought in as needed for specialist input.
Formats include short advisory retainers, project-based assignments, and selective fractional roles. The practice does not take on execution-led or team-management work. It is structured for senior input, not delivery.
A small number of longer-term advisory relationships are held with founders, foundation principals, and institutional leaders, on questions of direction, partnership, and long-horizon positioning. These are by referral and limited in number.