Final Report The ITP 2017 Hafnidar, Aceh Museum

Some people believe that working at a museum is just being a patron of objects and unnecessary to deepen knowledge. Some people believe a museum will be successful if they can get a high number of visitors. Among many assumptions, working at a museum is consuming time - the energy just to build an idea and encourage people to develop it is considerable. But the biggest enjoyment I get from working in a museum is the opportunity to work creatively .

I never thought I would be a part of the ITP’s history, but I kept thinking this was an opportunity to immerse myself in six weeks to gain a completely new experience. It was like a journey, exciting and enriching at once, and it enabled me to engage with broader museum experts and increased my global hub with the other fellows.

After I got my access pass and the daily programme I read each page one by one and started thinking how I can effectively accept all aspects with my lack of knowledge and experience. I found my way, listened and enjoyed everything and focused on the things I loved most.

In my first week I visited a temporary exhibition on Japanese Woodblock Printing at Asahi Shimbun Display in Room 3. It was simple, easy to understand, clean, and quiet, it was so Japanese. Actually it was smart because everything needed for display fitted flat in the wall, objects, digital, labels, also an interactive support. The exhibit was not excessive, but visually strong.

Another temporary exhibition we saw was Hokusai: beyond the Great Wave. I visited the exhibition twice because for some reason Hokusai’s art work resonated with me. The display told the story well and of course the work of Hokusai was great. I enjoyed exploring Hokusai's mind through his work; through this exhibition the visitor is bound to Hokusai’s thoughts.

I hope to build a team like the ITP team who work on my projects; everyone has their responsibilities, they work to manage the participants and take care of small things on time so that there is no need for a lot of people to involved. The programme was well organized and the team was good at looking after everybody.

I spent time each work working in the Asia department with curators Alex, Jessica, and Daniela. They have different backgrounds and abilities but we were so comfortable discussing and working with them. What I discussed with Alex was supported by Jessica and Daniela in discussions later in the day. When I was working on my exhibition project proposal sometimes the ideas changed but the curators understood and they do not impose their ideas on me. I felt supported by them and like a colleague.

The most unforgettable part of the ITP for me was my exhibition project proposal. I remember clearly when I made a deal with my project partner Matsosane Molibeli – she chose a blanket as our object therefore I designed the display. We clicked instantly and tried to share our culture and experiences through a single object. The project made me think about the answers to questions such as: how to make people understand through display? how to avoid a passive exhibit? what title would provoke visitors? The ITP encouraged me to do something that I never tried before, a scale model. It was the first time for me to create a scale model from scratch based on my ideas.

I created an interactive element to our exhibition based on the idea that we all use or buy a blanket. Every night in I always slept with a blanket that does not belong to me and I imagined it would be different if everyone had a chance to choose the colors and motifs for their blankets, maybe the sense of belonging would be deeper. As a result we bought fabric and crayons so that visitors could create their own blanket; they could create a ‘blanket’ which represented them. It was great to be able to create an activity which embodied the object’s messages. I now feel confident to design more active exhibitions in the future; I would love to make this dream of mine a reality.

I love everything about children and thinking about how to make the museum more child- friendly - what they want, what they think, what makes them happy, how they can be a part of the museum, how to listen to their voice, what should I do so they do not get bored, why they are ignored because they are students or children, how to help them understand the world, it has always interested me. In my future projects I will focus on two significant things in museums: exhibitions and engaging children.

I felt overwhelmed after workshop days with the BM team, Asia Department, UK partner placement program in Newcastle, and also my trips to , , , Wellcome Collection, because they all reflected children’s needs. Text and labels are funny, some labels are very simple but with strong colors, games and outreach programmes.

More specific examples include Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums’ Boxes of Delight, the Wellcome Collection’s free trail, the Royal Pavilion & Museum’s hands-on experience, Great North Museum’s Mouse House and Butterfly Wall, the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology’s family trail, London Transport Museum’s look-draw-color, the National Army Museum’s play base, Brighton & Hove Museums’ pre-school loan boxes and the Laing Art Gallery’s Inside Stories. The ITP ‘upgraded’ my museum experiences and I wish to pay much attention and explore all these ideas for children visiting museums in Indonesia.

I keep sharing my ITP experience. A few days after I returned from TWAM I told my friend about their outreach programme Boxes of Delights. She presented this idea to 30 Indonesian educators; although they did not fully understand they shared and discussed ideas.

Two days after the programme finished I was back in Aceh and reported my project at Deakin University and the Australian Embassy. They asked me to share what I got from ITP and I will design a new project in 2018 with them. My project will be influenced with what I got from Deakin University last year combined with what I got from London this year, I am very excited and I hope it will be submit by the end of September 2017.

A few days later I organized museum training in Aceh with 38 participants. The ITP experience that I shared to them is identifying objects, packaging, displaying, and creating public programmes. I also identified young staff and told them not to think about their own museums but began to care about museums that need their skills, based on the problems we shared on that day.

In September 2017 six interns began work in my section. Usually interns only learn to be a museum guide, library keeper, or work to identification of manuscripts. Now, I offer different kinds of experiences, I invite them to collect wedding photos from home, close relatives or friends and then ‘identify’ them in the museum. On the other days I ask them to design exhibits and we discuss the significance of objects and exhibitions.

J.M. Gandhimathi (fellow from India) and I dreamed to become partners after we go back to our countries, we talked about the opportunity to work together to create an elephant exhibition between Indonesia and India. We keep discussing our wildest ideas. One thing I know for sure it that ITP 2017 is not the end. The global hub between all of the ITP fellows is active. Everyone is connected to the media communication set up by the ITP team and all of us identified each other and can choose to work with everyone.

The various new theories and practices about museums which I have learnt on the ITP and have shaped how I work will be difficult to implement. I found on the ITP that how I think museums should be do exist and I was surrounded by like minded people. However, I know it is impossible to force an idea - even is good - on others; conflicts will arise from any loopholes. No doubt, I will keep my dreams, still design the things that I like, if I cannot apply my experiences and knowledge in Aceh Museum, I will share to other museums. Moreover I have social media and digital technology to spill out my ideas.

I could not have been a 2017 ITP participant without the ITP team, the support of the Indonesian Embassy, the Museum Director of Indonesia, Sri Patmiarsi Retnaningtyas, Dewi Murwaningrum and team, the Head of Aceh Culture and Tourism, and the Head of Aceh Museum. I would like to thank all of them. I have never been good at expressing how I feel but I say this wholeheartedly, I loved every moment of the journey over Summer ITP 2017.