More of the same for Visit Indonesia Year

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the arrival of Visit Indonesia Year 2008, museums in Jakarta have no special programs planned, instead offering their usual range of programs, including puppet exhibitions, kampung tours and the Batavia Art Festival.

The Puppet Museum in West Jakarta will have its regular programs, including weekly puppet shows, said the head of the museum's education division, Budi Santoso.

In addition to regular events, the city-owned museum plans to hold a one-month exhibition in August to commemorate the anniversary of the museum and the country.

The museum was officially opened to the public on Aug. 13, 1975.

"The exhibition will look at puppet characters whose appearance and body shapes change when they are angry, for example Hanoman and Kresna," Budi said, referring to the mighty white ape and a king who is the reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

"We will compare them with Western superheroes, such as Hulk, who also changes whenever he is upset," Budi said.

He said the exhibition would also include Astabrata characters, which represent eight life forces: wind, earth, fire, water, ocean, moon, sun and stars.

The museum also plans to use an adjacent building as an exhibition area this year. The museum currently has around 5,500 puppets in its collection, but only around 2,000 are on display due to limited space.

"The building is going through last checks because the contractors want to make sure there is no leakage in the building. It will allow us to display all our puppets," Budi said.

At the Jakarta History Museum, a two-minute walk from the Puppet Museum, the head of the exhibition and education division, Rucky Nellyta, said the museum had plans for several exhibitions in 2008.

It will also hold eight Old Town tours, including four evening tours. Nellyta said the exact details were not yet available.

She said the museum planned to hold several exhibitions, including the Batavia Art Festival, which is normally held twice a year, an exhibition on the growth of Jakarta from the 19th century to today and an exhibition on 10 years of the Reform era.

"We earlier planned to hold an open-air theater this year, but we canceled it due to limited budget. Last year we had a theatrical play; it was a success," Nellyta said.

The play was about the Mataram kingdom's invasion of Batavia. It involved 100 actors from various backgrounds, including students from the Jakarta Arts Institute, high school theater groups and expatriates.

She said the museum would also improve its displays, arranging the collection in chronological order. The museum collection includes paintings, letters and photographs.

The state-owned National Museum plans to hold a traveling exhibition in Palembang, South Sumatra, before April, and two temporary exhibitions in Papua and in Minangkabau, according to Dedah Rufaedah Sri Handari, the head of publication at the museum.

In Jakarta, it will organize various activities including painting exhibitions and batik classes, to be held every Tuesday and Thursday, she said.

Entering the second week of the year, however, all three museums have yet to prepare detailed regular programs for visitors.

All they have is a joint brochure along with other eight museums in the city and in Thousand Islands regency. The brochure was produced in 2006, as part of the Enjoy Jakarta campaign.

Despite the limited information, the number of museum visitors continues to rise.

The Puppet Museum attracted 24,263 visitors in 2005, 24,951 in 2006 and 28,806 in 2007.

"Last year, the administration set Rp 23 million as our projected income. But we exceeded the target as we made Rp 30 million. For this year, the projected income is set at Rp 40 million. I hope we can meet the target," Budi said.

Nelly said the number of visitors to the Jakarta History Museum had grown from 62,663 in 2005 to 69,708 in 2006 and 78,081 last year.

The National Museum also saw an increase in the number of visitors last year, with 127,000 people compared to 123,700 in 2006.

Entrance to the National Museum costs Rp 750 (8 US cents), while the Puppet Museum and the History Museum charge Rp 2,000.(tif)