Princess Alia Al-Senussi, PhD, is an active member of the contemporary art world with a focus on cultural strategy and patronage systems. She is a cultural strategist, writer, patron, public speaker and academic.
Princess Alia has served as Art Basel’s UK and MENA Representative for over a decade, and is also currently Senior Advisor, International Outreach for Art Basel. In 2019 she was appointed Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Culture, Saudi Arabia, where she focuses on developing international partnerships whilst working on a variety of projects across the Ministry’s commissions and the Diriyah Biennale Foundation. Princess Alia is a visiting lecturer at Brown University’s Watson Institute, working with the Middle East Studies Program.
Princess Alia is currently a member of the Tate Modern Advisory Council (London), the Strategic Advisory Panel of the Delfina Foundation (London), the Board of Trustees of The Showroom (London), the Board of Trustees of FUNTASIA/Elisa Sednaoui Foundation (UK / Egypt / Italy), the Board of Governors of Aiglon College (Switzerland) as well as a member of Therme Advisory Board (Germany) and the UCCA Contemporary Circle (China).
She continues to serve as a founding member of the Tate’s Acquisitions Committee for the Middle East and North Africa, the Board of 1:54 The African Art Fair, and the Middle East Circle of the Guggenheim, the Middle East Studies Advisory Committee at Brown University, the Serpentine Future Contemporaries (and founding committee member) as well as was a founding member of the Board of Patrons of Art Dubai, having played an integral role in the founding of the fair. Princess Alia is also a member of the British Museum committee for the acquisition of Middle Eastern art.
Dr Alia has a PhD in Politics from SOAS (London), examining the nexus of power and cultural patronage, featuring Saudi Arabia as a case study. She graduated Magna Cum Laude in International Relations (honors) and Middle East Studies from Brown University and holds an MA in Political Science from Brown and an MSc in Law, Anthropology and Society from the London School of Economics.