Abstract
Under the Suharto order that began in 1968, positive cultural politics came into force in Indonesia for the purpose of building a “national culture” through preserving and developing the country's diverse “regional cultures.” The notable point of this government policy is the rhetoric that combines the concept of “race” or “ethnic group” with the concept of “region,” that is, the 27 adiministrative provinces in Indonesia. Under this cultural policy, the cultural region and the administrative region (the province) have come to overlap.
In this process, artistic genres like music, dance, and theater, were very important factors to indicate belonging to a specific region. The government attached importance to the preservation, promotion, and development of kesenian daerah (regional art forms) as a subdivision of regional cultures. Kesenian daerah means the art forms which are rooted in the cultural past of the people. This term was often used in the sense of the “valuable” and representative art forms.
Against this background, the intellectual artists in various regions, including West Java, were actively searching for their own regional art forms. In West Java, this was done by seeking out and collecting the various regional art forms and reorganizing them. West Javanese intellectual artists founded an institute of arts and adopted as teaching materials the artistic genres that were rooted in this region, and were original, of high-quality, and have potential for development. They also promoted experimental activities for composing new works using these materials as sources. Presently, educational activities that promote extensive knowledge about various artistic genres and the experimental compositions are practiced at this institute.
In the present paper, I consider the educational system and the curriculum at the institute of arts in West Java, and I will present a case study of the activities in search of kesenian daerah in Indonesia.
