At the beginning of 2019, ACICIS Study Indonesia was thrilled to welcome 18 students to participate in our Creative Arts and Design Professional Practicum (CADPP). These students came from twelve ACICIS member universities, including the Australian National University, Charles Darwin University, Flinders University, Griffith University, La Trobe University, Murdoch University, Queensland University of Technology, RMIT University, Swinburne University, UNSW Australia and Western Sydney University. Students conducted professional placements in Jakarta, as well as other parts of Indonesia, including Yogyakarta, Bandung, and Bogor. Fifteen students participated in the CADPP with the assistance of New Colombo Plan mobility grants, while one student received a $7,100 John Darling Fellowship.
This year CADPP participants participated in an academic program throughout the first two weeks of the program, hosted by Atma Jaya Catholic University. This program consisted of Indonesian language classes, seminars on creative arts, and field trips. The language classes were led by experienced teachers at Atma Jaya’s Language Learning Centre and helped to prepare students for their four-week professional placements.
In addition to these classes, students attended a series of seminars presented by professional practitioners of creative arts and design in Indonesia. The speakers, including international exhibiting artists and practitioners, provided students with a glance of the creative industries in Indonesia, helping to prepare them for their placement. The seminar series covered a range of topics, such as Artists’ Practice in Indonesia, Australian Indonesian Art Collaborations, Commercial Design in Indonesia, Digital Media and Social Change in Indonesia, and Documentary Film and Photography Art in Indonesia. They also included bonus film screenings and Q&A sessions with the directors of “Jalanan”, Daniel Ziv, and “The Staging Post”, Jolyon Hoff. During this period, students were also assigned the task of preparing a creative tutorial, which they submitted by the end of the second academic week.
This year’s CADPP students undertook three field trips. The first field trip was to Museum MACAN (Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara), Indonesia’s first museum of modern and contemporary art. The visit began with an introduction to the museum’s profile and a video presentation about its education program. These were followed by Q & A sessions with MACAN Director Aaron Seeto and staff from the museum’s Art and Design department, including Curatorial and Communication Design staff. After learning about the museum’s programs, students toured exhibitions by Japanese artists Lee Mingwei and On Kawara, and Yogyakarta artist Arahmaiani.
The second field trip saw students visit government-owned Galeri Nasional located in Central Jakarta. After the screening of a presentation containing a brief overview about the gallery, the museum’s curators led students on an exclusive tour of the gallery’s permanent collection, in which students learned about the history of Indonesian art.
For the final field trip, CADPP students visited Komunitas Salihara, an arts centre located in South Jakarta. The students were welcomed with an introduction, a video profile about the organisation, and a brief explanation about the centre’s community programs. This was followed by a tour of the Salihara complex, during which students had the opportunity to ask questions of the centre’s manager and discuss how the work of art centres is linked to the community.
Following the two-week academic program, students commenced their four-week professional placements at their assigned host organisations in Jakarta, Bandung, Bogor, and Yogyakarta. In the 2019 iteration of its CADPP, ACICIS engaged a wide range of creative institutions and organisations to host its students. Among the 19 host institutions were Museum MACAN, The Distillery Asia, EngageMedia, LIGHTBOX, Grafis Huru Hara, Lanting Animation, Studio Eko Nugroho, Wanara Studio and more, in the areas of arts management and education, advertising, boutique and design retail, craft, film, and graphic design. During their four weeks of placement, students benefited from working directly with their mentors and gained valuable hands-on experience in their field of study. The ACICIS CADPP Academic Program Officer, Dr Elly Kent, also provided supervision and guided the students throughout the program.
We want to congratulate all 18 CADPP students on their incredible work throughout the 2019 CADPP program. We wish students all the best for the future and hope to see them all back in Indonesia shortly!