Jakartans wish to have museums as weekend getaway

Jakartans wish to have museums as weekend getaway

Evi Mariani
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

It would be nice if there were a few good museums in Jakarta, so
parents could take their children on the weekend and show them
that Disneyland is not the height of civilization and Lycra is
not the end all and be all in the realm of clothing.

When it comes to visiting the few museums Jakarta does have,
there are plenty of problems. Now, if you want to hit the mall,
the only problem you will face is deciding which of the many,
many malls in the city you wish to visit.

In a survey conducted by the Jakarta administration, 50
percent of the 868 respondents said they regularly went to malls
on the weekend. Only 5 percent of respondents said they ever
visited museums or historic sites on weekends.

Another 34 percent said they went to parks and other
recreational sites, while 29 percent responded that they chose to
remain at home on the weekend.

But Jakartans are not really to blame for their questionable
taste in leisure activities.

Sixty-four percent of the same respondents said they would
visit museums more frequently if the quality of Jakarta's museums
improved.

The city administration lists 20 public museums throughout
Jakarta, with the Jakarta Historical Museum and the National
Monument (Monas) Museum the most popular among survey
respondents, most of whom were students.

Many of the listed museums are unpopular to the point where it
would take an exhaustive search to find someone who has heard of
them, much less made a visit. For example, for most Jakartans the
M.H. Thamrin Museum does not exist. Where is it located? What
kind of collection does it have? But it is among the 20 public
museums listed by the administration. For your information, the
museum can be found on Jl. Kenari in Kramat, Central Jakarta.

The head of the Jakarta Cultural and Museum Agency, Aurora
Tambunan, is aware of these problems and does not blame
Jakartans.

"We have done a lot of things like printing brochures and
offering programs," she said at a workshop last week. "But
apparently, our target audiences have not read the brochures."

The only conclusion she could reach was that the agency's
efforts were ineffective and required some fixing.

Presenting the results of the survey to dozens of city
officials and other guests, Aurora highlighted a number of
comments on the current museum situation.

The respondents found much to criticize, from museums'
inadequate facilities and limited collections, to a lack of
information of the displayed pieces and poor customer service.

Very few museums offer regular program to attract visitors.
And some of the museums that do have programs often fail to let
people know about them.

The Textile Museum in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, for
example, has offered a number of interesting programs, such as an
exhibition of Madurese batik and Lampung cloth, which it held
this year in cooperation with a number of private collectors.

However, the museum does not have adequate facilities or
qualified staff to arrange the exhibitions. Consequently, first-
time visitors will think twice about making a second trip to the
museum, which is located near Tanah Abang market and a public
minivan terminal.

Other museums are even worse. The Maritime Museum in North
Jakarta faces the perpetual problem of its remote location, which
hampers all efforts to get more people to the museum.

The front yard is taken up by a messy market and the anchors
on the side of the gates are used by vendors to display their
wares, putting off potential visitors who might otherwise have
entered the building.

The most popular museum in the city is the Jakarta Historical
Museum, or Fatahillah Museum, in West Jakarta.

Though the collection is limited, the head of the museum,
Tinia Budiati, has put together several attractive programs like
a night tour of the underground prison at the building that
houses the museum.

Over the past three years, Tinia's efforts have drawn young
people, students and professionals to visit the museum come and
learn more about their city and its past.

Her and her staff's successful efforts prove that not all
Jakartans are indifferent to history, culture and the arts.

Although we cannot expect Jakartans to be like Europeans, we
can surely expect to see good museums receive a decent number of
visitors.