Museum celebrates 219th anniversary

JAKARTA (JP): The National Museum is celebrating its 219th birthday by launching several programs to boost youth interest in the country's heritage, Suwati Kartiwa, the museum's head, said yesterday.

"We have several interesting seminars and programs to attract youngsters," she said.

A seminar for teenagers on appreciating Indonesian painting will be held later this month.

Last year it held a seminar on teenagers and the arts, with actors Rano Karno and Didi Petet, and musician Franky Raden.

In October there will be a meeting between youth associations and the museum.

The museum is also arranging a special touring exhibition to visit elementary schools in rural areas in Lampung, South Sumatra. It will show slides and films.

"This is more attractive to children," Suwati said.

Last year exhibits toured schools in Sukabumi, West Java and Greater Jakarta.

Ceremonial artifacts from the classic period (between the fourth and fifteenth century) will be displayed in a special exhibition in early August.

Suwati said the museum would also send an exhibition to Tokyo, Japan, from Sept. 16 to Nov. 9, called Ancient Arts of Indonesia. The display will feature 155 gold, stone and bronze statues from the classic period.

Tokyo school children will see a preview before Sept. 16, she said.

Also to mark its 219th anniversary on April 24 it will send a special exhibition to Philadelphia in the United States. It will be on show from Sept. 13 to Dec. 7 at the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania.

The display organized by the National Museum, the provincial museum of West Sumatra and an American anthropologist and photographer, Peggy Reeves Sanday, will exhibit ethnographic photographs of the Minangkabau people.

The display is to be called Life Among the Minangkabau of Indonesia, and will be continued in Jakarta, and then Padang.

In November, a symposium on The Role of Museum in Society will be held at the museum with participants from Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Germany. (10)