The long, winding road to improve arts appreciation

Stevie Emilia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Quality performances by world-class artists throughout the year have brought new and stimulating experiences for loyal enthusiasts of the performing arts.

In June, renowned dancers, musicians and actors -- local, as well as those coming from Australia, Austria, Germany and the United States -- entertained arts enthusiasts at JakArt 2001.

At the third Art Summit Indonesia 2001 International Festival on Contemporary Performing Arts, Jakartans enjoyed rare dance, music and theater performances presented by artists coming from 10 countries -- Australia, China, Egypt, England, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea and the Netherlands, for a whole month, until the end of September.

In local theaters, some performing artists -- like Teater Koma group, choreographers Farida Oetoyo and Boi G. Sakti and the Saraswati Dance Company of the Indonesian Arts Institute Yogyakarta (one of the country's distinguished dance companies which collaborated with Janis Brenner Dance Company New York) -- continue to present their works as part of their creative process while at the same time, showing loyalty to their fans with the strong hope of garnering larger audiences.

Hope remains just that -- hope.

The number of people coming to local theaters to watch performances is not something to boast about. Most of them are old faces; the majority are those involved in the arts or who have interests in the arts world themselves.

At the Art Summit, for instance, out of 18 performing groups, performances which were booked out were only shows by familiar artists or groups like Boi G. Sakti, Farida Oetoyo, Teater Koma, Akhram Khan, Guangdong Modern Dance Company, Kim Bock Hee and Folkwang Tanzstudio.

Other shows, most of them musical performances, received a poor, even cold response.

The organizers had tried to do something to make the arts more accessible to the public at large by placing ads in the media, at schools and public places or even by holding free performances. But it still did not work.

At the time of crisis, financial considerations might explain why people are reluctant to spend money to watch cultural shows and prefer spending time at home watching television.

Tickets for the Art Summit, were set at between Rp 10,000 (US$1) and Rp 50,000. At that cost some people would opt to buy basic necessities instead of spending to watch dance, music, or theater shows.

In contrast, concerts by violinist Vanessa Mae and Irish pop group the Corrs were both a commercial success -- with tickets priced up to Rp 750,000 and Rp 550,000 respectively.

Large numbers of youngsters even line up at movie theaters to watch Hollywood's latest productions every weekend. The "financial consideration" argument just does not hold weight.

Why do cultural and arts performances fail to lure the bulk of educated Jakartans to attend? Are they simply not interested or they don't care?

As dean of the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) School of Performing Arts Sal Murgiyanto once put it, "one's appreciation of art and culture has to do with one's education".

Unfortunately, formal education in art appreciation is not something we are taught at schools here. In other countries, people are taught to appreciate art and culture at an early stage in life. They watch cultural or art events simply because they enjoy it.

Poor education however is not the only thing responsible for people's ignorance of the arts and cultural shows.

The government's lack of interest in the development of the arts might be another reason.

With around 12 million people living in Jakarta alone, the city only has a handful of theaters specially designed for the performing arts. Being the capital city of the biggest country in Southeast Asia and a country known for its cultural wealth, there should be more such venues.

Unfortunately, even high-ranking officials do not show much interest in watching cultural shows. At the Art Summit, most of the reserved VIP seats in the front row were empty. And the opening of such big festival, with many participating foreign countries, was only conducted by a state minister instead of the President or her Vice President.

The label "luxury" or for "elitists" given to arts or cultural shows also makes some people reluctant to attend such events.

But that assumption was rejected by Debra Yatim of the Communication for Arts Forum (Komseni). She pointed out recently that many people crowding movie theaters are mostly those who have the same purchasing power as those watching cultural events.

The disappointing turn out at cultural and arts events this year, regardless of the presence of reputable artists, should not make one give up hope on the need to educate people to appreciate arts and culture.

Just like Sal said, educating people to appreciate the arts might be a long process involving everyone: the government, educators and institutions. Without the ability to appreciate the arts, he added, one would have little appreciation for the lives of other people.

"These cultural shows or performing arts presentations are intended to touch people, to remind them and make them aware that there are other important aspects to people's lives, like love, hope, joy and appreciation."