Nin Djani

Conference Report. November 2023

I applied for the Travel Grant in the hope of meeting and learning from other museum professionals. As a Curator of Education and Public Programs, my particular interest lies in the ways art museums serve as a public hub where people come together, bridging conversations between artists, artworks, and its community(ies). Based on the socio-political situations, I anticipated the Latin American museum education context would have some similarities with Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia.

All this expectation and preconception was met at the 2023 CIMAM Conference. The panels were really well-curated and responsive to the current climate that calls for museums, artists, and curators to discuss the bigger social, political, and economic context of arts.

What we try to achieve at Museum MACAN in Indonesia is to provide a safe space for people to share their thoughts and ideas. We aim to welcome everyone, regardless of their age, backgrounds, and abilities in our museum as we believe it is people who make museums special. Personally, I find it reassuring to know that what we do at Museum MACAN is on track with what is being done globally.

I resonated with the sessions on improving accessibility for audiences with disabilities (Daina Leyton); engaging with marginalized/stigmatized communities (Sidhi Vhisatya); implementing transdisciplinary collaborations (Maria Hélène Pereira); championing new approaches in people-centered institution management (teresa cisneros); speaking up and serving as agents of change (Luma Hamdan); and rethinking the space and role of contemporary museums through language, archive, and programs (Simon Njami, Pablo Lafuente, Marian Pastor Roces).

Nevertheless, I am conscious of the actual execution of these ideas, and how we go forward from this conference. In practice, initiatives towards inclusivity and diversity can be challenging to sustain, and susceptible to tokenization as they are instrumentalized to course-correct the legacy of institutional practice in the past. I wish we had more time to exchange our thoughts and ideas about this during the conference.

I am grateful to be connected with museum educators and art professionals from around the world – an opportunity that I would not have had if it weren’t for the Conference. In our smaller circles, we also discussed how we can be more collaborative in our approach to programming and community outreach. This is something that I believe could have been facilitated formally. As much as I enjoyed listening and learning from the speakers, it would have been more helpful to have roundtable opportunities with speakers and fellow attendees.

I also enjoyed the opportunity to explore the arts scene in Buenos Aires and Salta. I particularly appreciate the efforts made to organize personalized trips on the third day of the conference. During the visit to Isauro Arancibia School and Borda Hospital, it was inspiring to learn about the scope of community outreach by the museum education team. I hope to make similar outreach and collaboration opportunities in my line of work in the future.

I would also like to express my gratitude to the team at Museum Moderno and CIMAM who have worked really hard to assist with visa applications. As an Indonesian passport holder, I anticipated the visa application process would be challenging. But the process with the embassy was more time-and-energy-consuming than I had previously anticipated to the point that I doubted I could attend the conference. Throughout this process, Micaela Bendersky from Museum Moderno, and Susana and Inés from CIMAM were very helpful and encouraging, I would not have made it to Buenos Aires without them. During the conference, I discovered that this experience was not exclusive, as many delegates from Asia and Africa had similar experiences. For future conferences, I would suggest establishing coordination with the embassies of the host country for a smoother process.

In the short term, I look forward to sharing my experiences with my colleagues at Museum MACAN. I am also exploring an opportunity to share with other young museum professionals in Jakarta/Indonesia, as we are a small community. As awareness of museums and museum experience is on the rise here, I am positive that there are lessons that can be implemented in the context of this country. The medium term (1–5 years) would be the kind of timeframe to advance further and make progress in such efforts. I believe that in addition to knowledge-exchange among museum professionals, it would be fruitful to reinstate connections with the academic sector, involving universities with courses in arts management to further the discussion on the role of twenty-first-century museums. I anticipate that the full impact of these shifting museum practices will be visible and more measurable in the long term (5–10 years onwards). Whether I would still hold my current position in the museum by this time is unknown, but I hope to still contribute my knowledge and growing network to the field – in my capacity as a curator, educator, consultant, museum professional, and engaged citizen.

Bio

I am the Curator of Education and Public Programs at Jakarta’s Museum Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN), a position I have held since October 2021. This role is a curatorial position, where I report directly to the Director and am responsible for the operations of Department of Education and Public Programs in the museum.

I lead a small team of five museum educators to design and execute interpretation and learning programs, which includes resources such as children’s guide, education kit and tutorials, audio guide as well as school outreach engagements and dynamic public programs that support the exhibition on display. I am involved in every exhibition project organized by the museum and ensure there are specific programs, from which our diverse audience can engage. Together with my team, I managed the production of education resources and public programs for Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles at Museum MACAN (2022-2023) and the first museum survey exhibition of Indonesian artist Agus Suwage (2022). I have been the lead curator for the museum’s Children’s Art Space commission projects, which is a unique co-creation project between the museum education team and an artist to produce an exhibition and learning activities dedicated for children.

My approach to curating and designing programs for the museum is interdisciplinary and participatory. There are two main reasons for this intentional approach. Firstly, I personally believe that art captures so much complexity in our history and current experiences, therefore art can be an entry point to start a dialogue on social, economic, environmental issues that everyone shares and can contribute their perspectives. Secondly, while art museums and galleries are a growing trend in Jakarta, in general there remains a lack of access to art museums in Indonesia; there is a gap between the art scene and the general public, thus as a public art institution I feel this responsibility to create inclusive, meaningful experiences for visitors of all background who come to our museum.

Prior to serving this role, in 2017–2021, I was a curator at ARCOLABS, a curatorial initiative that focuses on research-based projects aimed at developing new media art training opportunities for curators and artists through exhibitions, exchange programs, and incubation. I contributed to the development ARCOLABS’ annual program, XPLORE: New Media Art Incubation, which aims to equip young artists and curators to start their career. In 2020-2021, I took part in two installments of Made in Cirebon project, a government-to-government program initiated by the Korean Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Education Board of Cirebon, Indonesia to design an integrated learning model for secondary-level students, involving a direct participation of 10 artists to collaborate with each other create modules that combine arts, technology, and local cultural/social issues in the city.

I was the co-curators for Mediascape: Materials, Senses, and Beyond (Galeri Salihara, 2021) and Five Passages to the Future (National Gallery of Indonesia, 2019) and I was involved in the curatorial team of Indonesia Media Art Week 2019: SINKRONIK, which was a collaborative effort between ARCOLABS and the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture to encourage capacity building and access for new media artists across the country.

My academic background is in media and cultural studies. I hold a Masters’ Degree in Southeast Asian studies from Leiden University, The Netherlands (2014) and a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths, University of London (2013). Before establishing my career in the arts and museum scene, I was an educator, freelance writer and art director working across the creative sectors in Jakarta, from advertising to music and film.