J

akarta'€™s tourism and culture agency is set to renovate and improve its ailing museums ahead of the 2018 Asian Games.

Agency head Catur Laswanto said his agency would begin renovating museums in Jakarta this year. Catur acknowledged that most museums in Jakarta were designed and curated with little consideration of aesthetics or history.

'€œWe want our museums to represent our city and become popular tourist destinations. I acknowledge that most of our museums are in poor condition,'€ Catur told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Catur said the city administration expected many tourists during the 2018 Asiad, which Jakarta will co-host with Palembang and West Java; thus the city administration would renovate its museums before the games.

The agency will prioritize four museums.

The first of these, he said, was the Jakarta History Museum at Fatahillah Square in Kota Tua, West Jakarta, which is situated in a building that used to be the governor'€™s office. The nearby Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics is also on the city'€™s priority list.

The Textile Museum, located in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, will also be prioritized and will be carefully curated, considering tourists'€™ strong interest in the museum, Catur said. Fourth, Catur said, was the 1-hectare Maritime Museum located in North Jakarta in a building built as a spice warehouse in 1719.

'€œThese four museums are prioritized for various reasons, for example, because of their strategic location, attractive theme or because the buildings need physical renovation,'€ Catur said.

The improvements will not only focus on conserving the physical buildings that house the museums but also pertain to the curating as well as the exhibition design of the museums. The agency, Catur said, would cooperate with historians and local communities to properly curate the museums.

'€œWe will use the momentum of the Asian Games to renovate our museums. However, we hope that in the long run, our museums can also represent our city,'€ Catur said.

He acknowledged that most of the city'€™s museums were not properly curated and designed, causing a lack of interest from tourists. According to data obtained by the Post, there were a total of 1.6 million visits to eight museums in Jakarta last year, namely the National Museum, Satria Mandala Museum, Jakarta History Museum, Textile Museum, Maritime Museum, Fine Arts and Ceramics Museum, Wayang Museum and the Joang 1945 Museum.

The Jakarta History Museum accounted for the most visits in 2015 at 535,144 followed by the nearby Wayang Museum with 479,835. The lowest visitor numbers were recorded at Museum Joang with 8,909 and the Maritime Museum with 28,961.

Visitors at the Maritime Museum over the weekend praised the wide collection of artifacts, but criticized the museum'€™s design and flow.

'€œThe museum has a very interesting theme and has high potential, because Indonesia is an archipelago with a long maritime history,'€ said Faizil Surya, who visited the museum with his family.

'€œHowever, the design of the museum is unattractive; it doesn'€™t touch me or make me curious,'€ he added.

The father of two boys said he supported the city'€™s move to improve its museums, as they were important places for children to learn their country'€™s history.
________________________________________