THE WAYANG MUSEUM

The Wayang Museum building has gone through many changes. Influenced by the classic European or colonial architecture, the building was first built in 1640 as a church called de Oude Hollandse Kerk. In 1732 it was renovated and changed its name to de nieuw Hollandse Kerk. The church building was once destroyed completely because of an earthquake. But was then rebuilt by the Bataviasche Genootshap van Kunsten en Wetenscappen. The building was later turned over to Stichting Oud Batavia on December 22^nd , in 1939 and was made a museum called Oude Bataviasche Museum.

In 1957, the building was relinquished to the Association of Indonesia Culture, On September 17^th, 1962 the building was given to the State Department of Education and Culture, who subsequently turned in the building on June 23^rd, 1968 to the Government of the Indonesian Capital of Jakarta to be made as the Wayang Museum. The museum’s inaugural ceremony was held on August 13^th, 1975. Although the Wayang Museum inherited by the Dutch VOC is very old, its physical structure remains elegant and sturdy. The two-floored building standing on an area of 935,25 m2 on Jalan Pintu Besar Utara, West Jakarta, has never been renovated. Consequently, this historical building is entered on the list of 136 protected historic places, which implies the effort to preserve its originality with intensive maintenance.

The museum building will soon be expanded, but not by constructing a new compound in fact, there is no available space on the left and right side of the building because it is adjacent to other buildings. Today the construction is still at the preparation stage to demolish walls to make doorways. The new building plans to increase the activity in the Wayang Museum, which has been on rigorous promotion for more flow of visitors are people from a variety of countries, among whom are international students in Indonesia.

Many breakthrough plans had to be done to get the attention from museum visitors. In particular domestic and international tourist. From instance, the Wayang Revolution Exhibition, a wayang artworkpiece donated by the mayor of Rotterdam, was held in 2005. The cow hide wayang depicting figures of a variety of occupation, social class, gender and ethnicity was believed to be bought from Raden Mas Sajid, an artist from Solo, Central Java, in the 1960s. Furthermore, a shadow wayang show was held during the commemoration of the anniversary of Jakarta city using the Wayang Revolution material in the open area of the Historic Museum Plaza or the Fatahillah Park. The museum curators organized regular events to invite students to observe wayang making acivities. Moreover, they held workshops on museums in the Jakarta area schools, Wayang Golek Lenong shows, and other wayang shows.