Jakarta Java Kini - Jakarta's City Magazine

Is art preservation and education in Indonesia too reliant on the private sector?

FORGET NIGHTS AT THE MUSEUM, even the daytime is becoming a frightening time at Indonesia’s museums. A lack of care from the government regarding the collection, recording and preservation of Indonesian art is an ongoing problem and a bleak future seems to be ahead.

Minimal acquisition of Indonesian art has conspired with minimal care at public museums to produce this situation. Museum Senirupa dan Keramik (The Visual Art and Ceramic Museum) houses about the closest thing that the country has to a proper collection of Indonesian modern-art, though it contains no contemporary art and minimal programmes designed to boost public interest in its exhibits.

In fact, the museum that has most assiduously dedicated itself to the steady acquisition of Indonesian art over the past few years, by appointing experts to study Indonesian art history and by consistently showing an interest in keeping and preserving Indonesian art, is the Singapore Art Museum. Yes, Singapore. Yep, you are right, another country.