Improved access to Indonesian Presidential Palace Museums

Jennifer Barrett, director of Museum Studies at the University of Sydney, is leading a project to help make the Indonesian Presidential Palaces more accessible to the people of Indonesia, writes Rachel Olding.

Indonesia's three Presidential Palace Museums, in Bogor, Jakarta and Cipanas, are an important part of the country's national heritage. Housed in elegant Dutch colonial buildings, they contain historical items and works of art which tell the story of the Indonesian nation.For three months this year, six senior staff from the museums visited the University of Sydney to take part in a tailor-made training and education program.

Funded by the Endeavour Executive Awards, the program concentrated on conservation, collection management, interpretation and museum administration. The participants undertook formal coursework, English tuition, museum visits, seminars and practical experience via internships with museums and galleries in Sydney.

"We devised a program which looked into the sort of areas they were interested in, like conservation, what's going on in the museum world in general, and what would suit their situation at home in Indonesia," said Jennifer Barrett, the University's director of Museum Studies.

Dr Barrett and her colleagues, Dr Chiara O'Reilly and Jane Johnston, have established links with Indonesia's key government-based cultural institutions in conjunction with the Presidential Palace Museums, Australia's Ambassador to Indonesia, Bill Farmer, and the University's International Institute.  The focus of this year's program, Dr Barrett said, was on transforming the Presidential Palace Museums into more educational and publicly assessable museums.

The project also received grants from the Australia International Cultural Council allowing Dr Barrett and a small team to visit Indonesia. 

"We were able to develop an even better program by going to Indonesia," she said. "We learnt more about the significance of the presidential sites and the constraints involved. We did a lot of talking and exchanging of ideas and possibilities." The Sydney team also learned about the relationship between the Presidential Palaces and the museum sector across Indonesia.

A delegate from the Indonesian Presidential Palace Museum in Cipanas, RohmanMaulana, said the highlights of the Sydney program included a professional internship learning about storage techniques and the public programs on offer at Vaucluse House in Sydney.

"In Australia, there are programs for children, adults and students. In my museum, we would like to develop a public program and give people information and workshops," he said.

"I would also like to improve the way we store things at the museum. The fellowship has been very, very useful."

After enjoying their visit to Australia - seeing snow for the first time and celebrating Indonesian Independence Day - the delegates now have the task of implementing what they have learnt.

"It's been a fairly amazing experience for them," said Dr Barrett. "They hope the palace museums will become more accessible. How they communicate this to the public is now very much in their hands." 

The delegates visited museums and galleries in Canberra and Sydney which hold collections of Indonesia cultural material, and in one case they were able to correct a label on a piece of textile. They also spent time discussing Indonesian art with Professor John Clark from the University of Sydney's Department of Art History.

In their coursework they learnt about how communities are being encouraged to engage with their cultural institutions and collecting practices in new ways. "In the museum world, people are used to that sort of interaction where the emphasis is on the communities who have produced the material," said Dr Barrett.  The program was designed to show the diversity of museum practice in Australia rather than prescribe a universal way of doing things.

Dr Barrett believes a long-term exchange program will provide benefits for both sides and build a greater understanding of Indonesian society and culture at the University, which this year celebrates the fiftieth year of its Indonesian Studies program.  She is planning a follow-up visit to ensure that links are maintained, progress is made within the Presidential Palaces and opportunities for further collaboration across the museum sector in Indonesia are developed.

"It's one of those projects that has not just been about a visit; it has set up a whole lot of other relationships that will be ongoing," she said.  "It links us to the Indonesian cultural sector in a way that not many other institutions have achieved."

Photos courtesy of University of Sydney