Jakarta To Have Islamic Art Museum

JAKARTA, Jan 27 (Antara) - Indonesia's capital city Jakarta will soon have an Islamic art museum located in Koja, a subdisctrict in North Jakarta, as one of the new tourist destinations in the city. Head of the Social and Cultural Department of Jakarta Islamic Center (JIC) Haerullah told Antara, Thursday, that the construction of the three-floor museum has been completed on an area of 11.3 hectares. The building consists of a library, a museum, and an auditorium. "We are now in progress to collect items related to Islamic history in Jakarta and to create proper exhibitions to promote the moderate Indonesian Islam as well as its connection with the culture of Betawi (native Jakartans)," he noted. Actually, JIC has had some books and manuscripts about Islam in Jakarta but they should collect other historical objects which are separated in some places such as ancient binocular and artithmetic tool made by Betawi ulema, Guru Mansur, to see the crescent moon after a new moon or "hilal" in Arabic, to determine the beginning of Islamic calendar. The museum management is also trying to compose a storyline or narrative which will help visitors to easily understand the historical context of every object being exhibited. Considering lots of work that need to be done including budget planning and concept development, the management of the Islamic art museum had received assistance from the Director of the Islamic Art Department at Musée du Louvre, Yannick Lintz. During her visit to Jakarta to see the construction of the museum, Lintz said that the project which is aimed to educate both local people and tourists about Indonesian Islam would still need a long time to be finally completed. The most important step which needs to be carried out is developing story telling over the objects being showcased. Meanwhile, Lintz also proposed ways to seek for additional collections for the museum which were negotiating with other museums to have a long time loan over some collections or to have copies of it. "One thing to be remembered that collections of the museum should be arranged to form a story thus it will be more educative for people," she noted.