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or dozens of years, we Indonesians have enjoyed many great performances by fabulous international artists, thanks to the generosity of foreign embassies in Jakarta. Those performances have opened our minds, broadened our insight and deepened our (artistic) knowledge. They are also usually presented largely free of charge, so the people who are really interested and have the necessity to learn from them but are not terribly well off can have access to the performances.

They allow the lay audience to come, see, experience and enjoy these artistic performances for the first time. In fact, I have been among those lay audiences, and thanks to the classical music performances organized by The British Council, Erasmus Huis, Goethe Institut and the Centre Culturel Francais (now IFI) I found my interest in classical music '€” and just look what I am doing right now.

But is the impact of those free performances 100 percent positive? I have discussed this issue with many foreign diplomats residing in Jakarta, mostly cultural attaches. Of course it is the best way to introduce their cultures, arts and artists. And cultural diplomacy is, as we know, perhaps the most effective way to build a strong understanding and solidarity among the peoples of various countries.

But free performances unfortunately do not support the development of art in a sustainable manner.  For the last few years, we have witnessed a real boom in the quantity and quality of concerts by local artists and local organizers. This has become a major problem because classical music performances initiated by local organizers are unsubsidized, so we depend a lot on income from the public.

As a performance artist who also encourages performances by young Indonesian musicians, I have received hundreds of messages through the years, which are basically variations on the same theme: Why should we pay for concerts by Indonesian (classical) musicians if we can enjoy the performances of Western musicians for free? And despite hundreds of times explaining the reasons behind it, they still (naturally) prefer going to free concerts.

Not that my concerts lack audiences, but I know of many instances where people complained that '€œthis'€ or '€œthat'€ concert could have been free. Especially in Indonesia, where I feel that there is still this feeling of '€œeverything-western-is-better-than-our-own'€ among many Indonesians, therefore many prefer '€œWestern'€ art to that of Indonesia '€“ especially if it is free!

Since music is not tangible, or even edible, it doesn'€™t mean that it is free. The consciousness to invest in the arts must be built from an early age and the free-concert phenomenon destroys this very concept: that art belongs to everybody and if one needs it (and certainly we all need it!) we should pay for it, just like we need food or other forms of necessity. Certainly it cannot be built by distributing free tickets for performances.

Free concerts also mean that the willingness of the audience to pay to attend a similar concert in the long run will not be developed and encouraged. Therefore it is unhealthy for the ongoing development of the arts.

What is more, the appreciation of any kind of free thing is usually low. '€œFree'€ often means '€œdisposable'€, just like when we are handed out free snacks on the street, we often just taste it a bit without necessarily eating it again, or even immediately discard it, after establishing an opinion that that thing we just ate is '€œcheap'€ and '€œnot worth eating again'€.

A solution, if embassies are prohibited by their governments from charging audiences for tickets, is to donate the income from the tickets to a cause. The tickets do not have to be necessarily '€œadmittance fees'€, they could be in the form of an invitation to '€œmake a donation'€.  The audience should be educated that every kind of art is a production, and any kind of production costs money and we who enjoy it should contribute to it. That is how we artists earn our living.

The tickets '€“ or donations in this case '€“ can still be very cheap. The price is not what matters here since the purpose is not to cover the production cost; it is the feeling that art is not something free that is important. The amount can simply be a symbolic sum, perhaps equal to a cinema ticket, but we will appreciate the performance better when we know that we, too, have contributed to the existence and preservation of what we are enjoying. If the price is even lower than that of a sandwich, then we know which persons really do not care for the performance.

Contributing to the arts means also contributing to the betterment of society. Now that arts subsidies are being massively cut in European countries, this issue will not only be an Indonesian problem, but a wider international one.

The arts and culture will go back to where they really belong: of the people, by the people, for the people. But it could be too late before we realize this.