Bali Museum deals with bugaboo of funding in reform era

Bali Museum deals with bugaboo of funding in reform era

By Rita A. Widiadana

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): If you plan to spend your holidays in
Bali, you will probably choose the opulent Nusa Dua resort,
beautiful Sanur and Kuta beaches or the sophisticated Ubud art
village as your primary destination.

But the Bali Museum, one of the most historically rich places
on the island, will probably be left off your itinerary.

Although it is located in the city center near the famous
Puputan Square, the museum rarely attracts visitors. Only a few
people visited it during the recent school holidays.

"Going to this museum is boring. The items on display have
changed very little since I was a child," Prita Dewi, a student
of Udayana University, said as she watched a rock concert in
front of the museum last Friday.

But for those with a deep interest in Balinese culture, the
museum is a well of knowledge. It is home to an important
ethnographic collection, ranging from intricate wood and stone
carvings and sculptures, masks, puppets, rare manuscripts and
lavish textiles, to ritual apparatus for religious festivals and
rites of passage ceremonies.

The museum's eight buildings are also fine examples of the
regional architectural style of Bali. The exhibit buildings,
Tabanan, Singaraja and Karang Asem, are named after the Balinese
kingdoms which contributed to their construction.

Each building represents architectural elements of the
regency, blending a Balinese temple and a palace structure.

A tour guide, Made Yudhayana, said that he was kept busy
accompanying visitors to the museum.

"European tourists, especially Dutch and German, often ask me
to take them to the museum. Their interest in local culture is
much greater than visitors from other countries," he said.

Developed in 1910 by the Dutch colonial administration as part
of its policy to preserve indigenous Balinese culture, it was
first conceived as a museum of Balinese architecture.

Curated by German artist Walter Spies, the museum's
archeological and ethnographic collection started in the early
1930s. With the help of Spies, the museum did a remarkable job in
collecting numerous primitive arts, artifacts and other ancient
art forms linking the modern Balinese with their Austronesian
ancestors.

In 1932, a special board comprising Balinese aristocrats,
Dutch officials and executives from the Dutch steamship company
KPM jointly managed the museum.

But when World War II broke out, almost all Dutch members left
the board, putting the running of the museum in the hands of the
only Balinese patron, I Gusti Made Ayun. To preserve its
collection, the Indonesian government took over the museum in
1966.

Until this year, it and all state-owned museums throughout the
country were managed by the Directorate of Museums at the
education and culture ministry.

Handover

But administration of the museum was handed over to the
provincial government of Bali in January 2001 in line with the
newly implemented regional autonomy.

Hopes were that Bali's cultural agency would be able to
closely monitor and resolve various problems faced by the
museum's management.

However, things have not gone smoothly.

"We are now facing the real problems. It has been a very
difficult transition period, both in technical and financial
terms," said museum director Ni Nyoman Rapini.

Rapini and her staff have been working hard to slash their
monthly budget to a minimum, including through postponing various
trainings and promotional activities, since January.

"But the main problem is how to synergize the mind-set of the
museum's management and local officials," added Rapini.

She acknowledged there were different perceptions among
officials and museum administrators about how to preserve
cultural heritage and to operate a provincial museum.

"As a non-profit and educational institution, the museum badly
needs assistance from the local administration. But we understand
that they neither have adequate funds nor skilled staff to
support our activities.

The museum previously received an annual subsidy from the
central government of about Rp 500 million to cover its
operational costs and to implement various programs.

Now, the local administration allocates only Rp 250 million a
year to cover all expenses, including electricity, water and
maintenance.

Bali Museum is facing difficulty in maintaining its 14,000
exhibits because of a lack of skilled staff and limited display
space.

"Only around 15 percent of the collection is now on display,
the remaining items have to be kept in humid storage rooms, which
leaves all of them vulnerable to decay," Rapini said.

"In the past, our staff regularly received training in
preservation, museum management and other museum-related
knowledge provided by the central government.

Some skilled employees will soon retire, leaving a wide gap
between experienced and younger staff.

"How can we maintain these huge buildings and the vast
collection without professional staff and adequate funding,"
Rapini said.

She added that several regional museums, including Subak
museum in Tabanan and the Archaeological Museum in Jembrana (both
in West Bali), and Yadnya museum in Mengwi, South Bali, were in a
similar predicament.

Dilapidated

"All of them are in a dilapidated condition and badly need
help from the government, private institutions or individuals."

The museums house invaluable collections. Gedong Kirtya museum
in Singaraja, for instance, has thousands of old manuscripts
about the history and origin of the Balinese and Javanese people.

Subak Museum in Tabanan records the importance of Subak, the
island's elaborate irrigation and farming system, as well as the
complicated structure of agricultural society in this province.

"If we don't do anything to preserve all of these historical
items, the people of Bali will sooner or later lose their own
roots," Rapini said.

Efforts have to be made by the provincial and regional
administration together with all concerned parties.

But it's not merely a Bali problem. Many of the nation's
museums suffer from the same woes of poor funding, little
attention from regional administrations and a decided lack of
interest from the public, more interested in watching the latest
sinetron (soap opera) than to discovering the legacy of their
ancestors.

Some historians and art experts worry that valuable treasures
are being lost to the ravages of the tropical climate or, in some
cases, theft.

In Jakarta, however, the private sector as well as individuals
have paid attention to the development of museums and
preservation of cultural heritage, Rapini said.

But she lamented that the same concern had yet to be found on
the resort island.

"Bali is one of the richest provinces in Indonesia and there
are many successful businesspeople, but their awareness of
supporting the museum is still lacking."

People in Bali are also reluctant to visit the museums because
of preconceived notions about their value.

"A museum can only survive if the surrounding community is
already museum-oriented. In Bali, there is still a long way to go
before its people realize the importance of this institution."