Ever wonder why Indonesian art seems so ubiquitous these days? The Jakarta Globe points out that Indonesian companies have an incentive to support the arts. They cite Haryanto Adikoesoemo as an example of a private interest in Indonesian art dovetailing with a government incentive:
He said companies should invest more of their state-mandated corporate responsibility budgets in the arts. Recently, a change to the CSR rules mandated that companies spend at least 2 percent of those budgets on promoting the arts. Haryanto invested $450,000 of his own money into organizing and hosting the one-month exhibition in Shanghai in conjunction with the World Expo. He was helped by two partners, a lawyer and another Indonesian entrepreneur, both based in Hong Kong. Entitled Contemporaneity: Contemporary Art of Indonesia, it was the first showing of works of Indonesian artists at a major exhibition. It is telling that the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai devoted a whole month exclusively to the exhibition, offering ordinary Chinese a rare insight into Indonesia’s artistic soul.
Art as Economic Driver: AKR’s Big Bet (Jakarta Globe)
