Indonesia: Jakarta Heritage Academy officially launched

In the morning of August 19, about 200 professionals, officials and reporters gathered at the Erasmus Huis in Jakarta to attend the official launch of the Jakarta Heritage Academy. This programme, to be developed by Indonesian and Dutch partners (e.g. the Shared Cultural Heritage partners) for young Indonesian heritage professionals, will consist of a series of master classes to take place in 2017. The main challenge is how to create a liveable historical city.

One of the seven speakers at the launch was Hilmar Farid, Indonesia’s Director General of Culture, who stated that the Academy has great potential to deal with the challenge of how to combine the preservation of cultural heritage in Indonesia’s inner cities with social-economic developments.

In the afternoon, a select group of young professionals and senior experts got together in mapping sessions to provide their valuable and pragmatic input for the curriculum of the master classes. On August 20, as a teaser for the still-to-be-developed Academy programme, the young professionals were introduced to the skill of drafting a Statement of Significance, based on sites they visited in Kota Tua, Jakarta’s historical centre.

The Academy is expected to start accepting applications in late 2016. All details will be announced through the Jakarta Heritage Academy Facebook page.