Study center to be established at Jakarta Historical Museum

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Historical Museum will have a study center for Jakarta history, an official said on Saturday.

The museum director, Tinia Budiati, said the center is expected to become the place for research activities, including library and archive searches on city history.

"Data on Jakarta history has been so spread out in different places that those who need access, must go to several institutions. It is expected that through the study center, people will find any material they need under one roof," she said.

Tinia said the project would involve other institutions. She did know when construction would begin, because the center is still in the planning stage.

"What is clear is that many kinds of learning activities can be held here like discussions, research, seminars and data collection," she said, adding that through the center, the museum library -- which now has about 2,000 old books -- would also be revitalized.

She said the center is expected to be able to meet the people's demand to uncover Jakarta history that remains unknown until now.

The existence of a historical museum in the city with management always complaining about the lack of visitors was not popular among the residents.

Consequently, the city museum and restoration agency recently organized several activities to revive the seven museums under its auspices, including the Jakarta Historical Museum, namely, exhibitions, festivals and competitions.

Earlier, Tinia hinted last week that the city administration, in cooperation with Amsterdam-based Tropenmuseum, will hold a series of training programs on museum management for employees of city-owned museums starting in the middle of this year.

She said the programs would last three years, including special programs that will be conducted in the Netherlands for selected trainees.

"The training will be held in two stages and will focus on conservation and museum collection management. At the end of the project several selected trainees will undergo further training in the Netherlands for another eight to 10 months.

Tinia, who is involved in the project planning, said each of the city's seven museums would select three of the staff members for the programs.

"Hopefully, the project can start in October following a survey conducted by the Tropenmuseum experts in May and June," she said.

There are seven museums under the auspices of the city administration. Three of them are in Central Jakarta, the Textile Museum, the 1945 Fight for Freedom Museum and the Memorial Park Museum.

Two museums are in North Jakarta: the Maritime Museum and the Puppet Museum. While in West Jakarta, there are the Fine Art and Ceramic Museum and the Jakarta Historical Museum. (ind)