Ramadian, 30, rushed out of the Bank Indonesia museum in the historic Old Town area in West Jakarta on Saturday when his three-year-old son started crying.  

'He became scared because some of the rooms at the museum were too dark,' he said, adding that he had not managed to see all the collections at the museum because of his son's outburst.

Ramadian, who visited the Old Town with his family, eventually decided to roam around Fatahilla Square during the time remaining.

'My son preferred enjoying the scenery and open space here rather than visiting the old, dark museum,' he said during the Jakarta Festival Museum Day, which was held to mark International Museum Day on Saturday.

Ramadian regretted that museums rarely provided interactive activities for children, saying that such facilities would not only be fun for children but would also be educational.

According to Jelajah Buday, a group of history lovers, Jakarta has 62 well-maintained museums but most are still conventional in the way that they mostly display objects or collections with accompanying written information. Only a few museums provide visitors with interactive media, such as audio-visual equipment, trained tour guides or interactive activities.

University of Indonesia (UI) museum expert Kresno Yulianto Soekardi said that museum curators and managers needed to be more creative in presenting objects and information.

Kresno cited Indonesia's Independence Day on Aug. 17, 1945, as an example. 'It would be far more interesting if a museum also told actual stories from the event in question, such as the fact that president Sukarno ordered fried rice or that the original draft of the proclamation of independence was thrown in a waste bin,' he said.

He added that by offering stories connected to historical events and items, a museum's artifacts would be made more interesting.

Another example is the archeological museum, Tengah Kebun, in Kemang, South Jakarta, which has invited archeologists and historians to research the historical backgrounds of its collections.

'Visitors to the museum, which was recently voted the best private museum in the city by the Jelalah Budaya community, can read many interesting things about the collections,' museum expert Yunus Arbi told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He added that the museum's tour guide also delivered facts in an informal way, allowing visitors to relax and enjoy their visits.

Kresno said interactive activities in museums would certainly encourage more people, including foreign tourists, to visit.

The Layang Layang Museum in South Jakarta, for instance, provides various activities, such as kite making, batik painting, making ceramics and watching films, for both adults and children.

Kresno said that all parties needed to get involved in order to attract more people to visit museums.

'People who live near museums, the government, museum curators, public figures and the media all need to work together to get more people to visit museums,' he said.

The Textile Museum in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, attracts relatively few visitors, partly because it is located on a congested road and is somewhat hidden behind street vendors.

Jakarta Tourism and Culture Agency chief Arie Budiman said the general trend was encouraging if one looked at the rising number of domestic and foreign visitors to the city's museums in the last five years.

Arie added, however, that museum curators should continue to improve their services to encourage positive word-of-mouth that would, in turn, draw more visitors.

'We should also actively promote museums,' he said, adding that his agency advertized museums in malls and shopping centers. 'Also, we often hold events in the museums themselves,' he said, adding that these were effective ways to attract more people to visit.

Arie said the celebrations this year for International Museum Day included more interactive events, like creative competitions and games, in the hope that visitors would be left with fond memories of their visits to the museums. (tam)

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