AnnissaGultom_Museologist

Portfolio

prepared in 2024

ANNISSA GULTOM

MUSEOLOGIST

CURATOR

ARCHAEOLOGIST

NON PROFITS MANAGEMENT

who am i

Museum is a man made value creator.

I have been working with museums since 2006, starting in exhibition development and later expanding to museum master planning in 2012.

In between projects, I was involved in research and academic activities. Museum Kain, Bali (2012-2016) was my first Director role, while my second is in the role of Director for the Ras Al Khaimah National Museum, UAE (since 2019).

who am i

My background

Education

Bachelor of Humanities in Archaeology,

Universitas Indonesia, Depok

MA in Museum Communication,

University of The Arts, Philadelphia, USA

Specific Trainings

Basic conservation on stone and pottery, Conservation Office of Jakarta (2016)
ICCROM-CollAsia course in Conservation & Use of Southeast Asia, Bandung (2016)
Museomix: 3 days of creative marathon in museums, Bologna (2016)
Business Model Innovation, HEC Paris via Coursera (2022)
Value Analysis - Value Engineering, Executive Council Ras Al Khaimah, American University, Sharjah, (2022)
Project Management Professional (PMP)

my work

Include Exhibition Development, Curatorial, Museum Planning, Museology Education in the scope of:

Archaeology, Prehistory, Colonial History
Ethnography, Living Tradition, Intangible Heritage
Contemporary Art
Cultural Heritage Development,
Exhibition Design, Storytelling in Museums, Museum Development, Preservative Conservation

who am i

REACH OF EXPERIENCE

Overview of experience (INDONESIA)

Jakarta biennale foundation

(2017) Curatorial team for Jakarta Biennale: JIWA

Wrote "Reviving the Soul of Museums", a curatorial essay in the Catalogue of Jakarta Biennale 2017: JIWA, page: 14-17, Jan 2018, downloadable here

Museum Nasional indonesia

(2020) Review of Museum Nasional Indonesia restructuration to be a self-funding entity

(2014) Museology System Audit Research

(2012) Pre-Masterplan discussions for revitalisation and new pavilions

(2006-2007) Internship with the Education & Public Relation Department

museum sejarah jakarta

(2016-2017) New Permanent Exhibit and New visitor flows as approved by the Heritage Board of Jakarta

(2016) Collection database development

(2006) Curatorial Assistant for temporary exhibitions of (1) Prehistory of Jakarta & (2) Colonial time in Jakarta

museum bank indonesia

(2017) Curator for database management evaluation and content management

Ministry of education

& CUlture of indonesia

(2016) “Rumah Peradaban” travelling Archaeology exhibition in Cirebon, with Balai Arkeologi JABAR.

(2016) Museologist for Fort Malborough development

(2015) Feasibility Studies of Music Museum in Lokanantha Records, Solo

(2015) Feasibility Studies of Prehistoric Rock Art Museum, Maros, South Sulawesi

(2013) Storyline Curator for Noken Museum Masterplan

(2012-2013) Writer in Book 3: Collection Display & Exhibit, part of a module.

(2012) Pre-Masterplan Studies of Manokwari Museum

(2012) Co-writer for Chapter IV. Future of Indonesian Museums, in History of Indonesian Museum

(2009) Summer Internship in Sangiran Early Man Site, Central Java, Indonesia

pusat dokumentasi arsitektur, jkt

(2018) Museologist for FGD on Revitalization project of A.A. Maramis Heritage building

(2017) Instructor for “Museum 101” Workshop

(2013) Co-organize and develop “Indonesia Through the Looking Glass” travelling exhibition and program in Erasmus Huis and Universitas Indonesia

(2013) Storyline curator for “Forts of Indonesia”

a bilateral exhibit between Indonesia and the Netherlands displayed in Troppenmuseum

museum kain, bali

(2013-2016) Museum Director

(2012) Museologist for Museum Planning from conceptual, detailed design to implementation and organisational structure

unesco- jakarta

(2016) Storyline Curator for “Kotatua Our Commonground” on Historical Building Landscape

(2016) Translating Running a Museum: Trainer’s Manual, published by UNESCO-ICOM (International Committe of Museums), France 2006,. June 2016.

(2014) Museology System Audit Research in Aceh Tsunami Museum, Banda Aceh

goethe institute, jkt

(2020) Moderating "Our Collections Are Online, Now What", Festival Retas Budaya: The Future of Open GLAM.

(2019) Curriculum Director for Curatorial Workshop: “Storytelling in Museums” with Makassar Biennale

(2018) "Transitioning Museums in Southeast Asia" roundtable, in Berlin with Goethe Institute Southeast Asia office & Berlin office; the Hamburger Bahnhof museum; the Natural History Museum of Berlin.

(2017) "Museums, Artists and Collections: Future of Southeast Asian Museums", 3rd round table, Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

(2017) "Museums – Challenges in 21st Century", 4th round table held in National Gallery, Jakarta

overview of experience (INTERNATIONAL)

Ras al khaimah national museum, RAK, UAE

Role: Director of Museums Department

(since May 2019)

EXHIBITIONS:

(2024) Emirati Wedding

(2024) Silver Jewellery Galleries

(2024) Prehistory in RAK

(2024) Julfar Gallery

(2023) TAPHONOMY: History in Motion, Bayt 14, RAK Arts Festival 2024

(2022) Welcoming Area exhibition

(2020) Tamra & Madbasa: date palm

DEVELOPMENT

(2021) Organization Restructrization

(2020-2021) SOP alignment

(2019) 5 years revitalisation plan & Strategic Objective of RAK Department of Antiquities and Museums

Department of Culture & tourism, abu dhabi, UAE

(2023) Presented “Qawassim Coins and other finds from Falaya, a Curatorial Study”, in UAE Archaeology Conference, organized by Zayed National Museum, Abrahamic House, 6 Nov2023

(2018-2019) House of Knowledge exhibition (on the Golden Age of Islamic Scholars), Zone 15 of Qasr al Watn (Presidential Palace)

(2018-2019) Curatorial studies for prehistory objects, Al Ain National Museum

ICCROM - Collasia

(2021) Course Facilitator for: “Reorganization Collections Storage”. Online, co-hosted by Siam Museum, Thailand (Jul - Dec 2021)

(2019) Course Instructor for: “Planning New Exhibitions: conservation, communication, community”. Co-hosted by Lao National Museum, Vientiane, Laos PDR (Sept-Oct 2019)

(2016) Participant in the International Course in Conservation and Use of Southeast Asian Collection, Organized by ICCROM – CollAsia, Museum Geologi Bandung, Indonesia

MARKK Museum, Hamburg

(2021) Presented "Our Ancestors Knew Best", part of From Conservation to Conversation, published in 2022. Downloadable paper and replay presentation here .

SPAFA-seameo

(2021) SPAFA Sesh, "Southeast Asian Women Working in Archaeological Collections", SPAFA, Thailand 24 March 2021, watch it here .

(2020) Spoke in session 9, "Preserving Textiles: Indigenous Knowledge and Methods", UCLA Engaged Scholarship in the Asia Pacific", 11 November 2020. Watch here .

(2019) Presented “Value in Preserving Colonial Heritage, which ones should we preserve?” SPAFA-SEAMEO Conference, Bangkok

(2017) Presented "From Kalapa to Jakarta" in Jakarta: Past and Present lecture program, The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage, Bangkok, Thailand, 23 May 2017. Watch here . Published in Feb 2018, SPAFA Journal, Vol 2 (2018) available here

(2016) Researchers in “Capturing and Sharing Traditional Methods in Textile Preservation in ASEAN”, organised by SEAMEO-SPAFA, Thailand

selected works in this portfolio(2013-2024)

JAkarta Biennale 2017: JIWA

Jakarta, Indonesia

museum kain

Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

Jakarta history museum

New flow & main exhibition

Museum Sejarah Jakarta, Kotatua, Jakarta, Indonesia

taphonomy:

history in motion

RAK Arts 2024, Bayt14, Al Jazirah Al Hamra, UAE

House of knowledge

Qasr Al Hosn, Zone 15, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Ras al khaimah national museum New flow & exhibitions

Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

jakarta biennale 2017: jiwa

I was part of a curatorial team led by Melati Suryodarmo, a senior contemporary performance artist. For this biennale, we gathered artists to perform or display their work in the museums located in the Jakarta Old City area (Museum Sejarah Jakarta, Museum Seni Rupa & Keramik, Museum Wayang, Museum Textil, Museum Taman Prasasti). In the catalogue I wrote about reviving the museum's soul (“Jiwa”).

Location: Jakarta

Duty period: Feb - Dec 2017

A visitor viewing the recreation of Dana Awartani's work of sand tiles installation & replay video of the performance

The Late Adjie Damais (1942-2021) in front

of Dunia Leluhur by Ni Tanjung

Pieces in Museum Sejarah Jakarta:

Sukarno statues series

[wax, paper, clay, plastic]

Dolores Sinaga, Indonesia

Pieces in Museum Sejarah Jakarta

I went away and forgot you.

A while ago, I remembered.

I remembered I’d forgotten you.

I was dreaming.

[sand tiles installation and loop video of the initial performance]

Dana Awartani, Saudi Arabia

Pieces in Museum Sejarah Jakarta

Land, Water

[water clay painting on the wall, with life performance]

Nikhil Chopra, India

Pieces in Museum Sejarah Jakarta

Meronce (Beading)

[Seven three-hour performances of beading 12 Kg of white crystal beads (21,600 pieces) into a 35-meter-long strand in collaboration with her mother and her sister]

Ratu Rizkitasari Saraswati, Indonesia

Museum Kain, Bali

The museum offered interactive experience with special fare for students

Museum Kain was a project of museum as a marketing tool for the leading commercial brand in high end Batik: Bin House. This project was initiated as an experiment of a “pop-up” museum in a mall to prepare Bin House’s team to establish a “full set” museum in another location. The vision was discontinued after the sudden passing of its founder, Roni Siswandi. I worked under his guidance in developing the museum’s storyline, content plan and development, objects curation. Together with Yusman Siswandi and a German consultant, I created the interior flow and digital presentations.

Location: Jakarta-Bali

Duty period: March 2012-April 2016

The museum bridges the past and the future

by providing digital means to understand

the centuries-old textile traditions

Architecture and Interior

main entrance

400 square meters over a platform on the top floor of Beachwalk Mall,

Kuta, Denpasar.

[concrete, wood, rattan, plywood, acrylic, paper, painted paper, cloth]

Yusman Siswandi, Indonesia

exit / entrance to gift shop

gift shop

Creating experiences and memories

The museum provided a Batik painting program for the public onsite and offsite (pre-opening in Museum Nasional Indonesia). At the end of every visit, the storytellers show many ways to wear clothes to visitors, and they can pose on the provided Javanese day bed as the “photobooth”.

new flow and main exhibition

Overview of the new entrance, flow and activation of additional spaces in the revitalisation project of Jakarta History Museum (2016-2017)

The project consists of :

(1) Establishing a new entrance and flow of the museum; (2) permanent exhibition in both floors; (3) Curating the collection database development. The (new) west gate is an old door that was reopened with the approval and guidance of Jakarta’s Heritage Board. This new entrance activated the “Harijadi’s Mural room” to start the museum visit experience. The permanent exhibition guides visitors to experience the development of civilisation in the land since prehistoric times, indigenous kingdoms, colonial and towards 21st century.

Location: Jakarta

Duty period: April 2016 - Dec 2017

Harjadi’s Mural Room

Harjadi was the first Indonesian artist Sukarno sent to Mexico to study how to paint murals. This mural was commissioned in preparation for Queen Elizabeth’s visit in the 70s. It could not finish due to the high salinity and humidity in the wall, as the seawater seepage is quite a rampage. Harjadi’s work is the only visual illustration that perfectly pictured the lifestyle of colonial wealth, power, dominion and friction among different parts of the segregated society.

The Oldest Surviving Indigenous Map

The Ciela map is possibly the oldest surviving map drawn by the indigenous tribe in West Java before the early cartography by the Portuguese, written in Sundanese character and language. The original cloth material map is protected as a sacred item in Garut, West Java. We copied the map in cloth for this exhibition and provided a tactile copy for visitors’ interaction by tracing the readable places.

Prehistory of Jakarta

These stone tools found in Jakarta and surrounding areas have never been exhibited in its complete set since their discovery in the 70s. Their simple and minimalistic display is planned to illustrate how it was used and how the magnitude of variance can describe the Neolithic Jakarta.

S.Soedjojono’s process

The “Pertempuran Antara Sultan Agung dan J.P Coen” (Sultan Agung and J.P Coen Battle) painting was a built-in piece completed by Soedjojono in 1974. The government of Jakarta commissioned the piece in preparation to welcome the late Queen Elizabeth’s diplomatic visit to Indonesia. The visit was also what sped up the museum's development.

The expansion of content and experience accompanying this masterpiece is by presenting Soedjojono’s sketches and studies when he conceptualises the scenes.

Banda for Batavia

The Banda massacre (1621) was the pivoting point for J.P. Coen and VOC's economic success. Which later became the foundation of Batavia. The mural was created based on archives and artist recreation, while the accompanying text is verbatim from the archive that listed the amount of Bandanese that were killed or forced displaced to be slaves. This is the first museum display in Indonesia that presents Banda at the front and centre in narrating the making of Batavia.

taphonomy : history in motion

Entrance to Bayt 14, Al Jazirah Al Hamra

The exhibition adopts the understanding of Taphonomy in Archaeology as part of the 2024 RAK Arts theme of “Motion”. Archaeological artefacts from the “Julfar” period are on display in three rooms as part of the story of Ibn Majid. The exhibition will stay on display longer than the Arts Festival and will be renewed for 2025. It will be the village's only “activated” heritage building for 2024 before establishing the planned new museum or the next Festival. The exhibition will be renewed for the 2025 edition of the Festival.

Location: Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Duty period: October 2023 - Mar 2024

Activating Bayt 14

This RAK National Museum initiative is part of the RAK Arts Festival 2024, the Emirates' annual art event that runs every February. The exhibition activates a heritage house (Bayt 14) that was restored as part of the larger project of Al Jazirah Al Hamra, the largest surviving fisherman-pearling village in the UAE.

before

after

Objects that travels

Archaeological objects uncovered from the Julfar period layer portray how Julfar (the old port of RAK) was connected to the world. The display includes Roman clay lamps, camel miniatures, Chinese ceramics, European and Persian copies of chinese ceramics, glass wares from India and Europe, and local potteries distributed as far as eastern coast of Africa.

Scorpius

Ibn Majid wrote that the navigation direction to reach Ras Al Khaimah is to follow the tail of the Scorpius star. The star is more easily found in the southern hemisphere between 9.30 and 10 pm in the summer. As this festival was opened in the winter, the Scorpius room invites visitors to explore the stars, and Scorpius is found in the first infinity mirror room in RAK.

House of knowledge

“House of Knowledge” is a theme for Zone 15 inside the Qasr Al Hosn, the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The exhibition aims to pronounce the era of enlightenment of the Islamic Civilization by highlighting the topics of Medicine, Leadership, Astronomy, Cartography, Culture, Art, and Architecture.

Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Duty period: August 2018 - Feb 2019

Medicine

Exhibition on the earliest medical innovations and developments that are not only about understanding human anatomy but also growth innovation in surgery, pharmacy, the founding of hospital as a concept and holistic healing. Collections on display are first editions of medicinal books, including Aviciena’s (ibn Sina). One of the highlighted written sources is a catalogue of surgical tools.

Astronomy & Cartography

The study of the stars in the Islamic civilisation resulted from restudying and developing the early works of ancient Greek sources. The knowledge later developed into the skill of navigation that brought the Arab merchants as among the earliest world traveller far before the European.

Arts & Culture

The Golden Age of Islam left tangible impressions in the form of architecture, works of literature, and music. These pleasurable products created by the enlightened civilisation travelled through international trade and influenced modern taste in the beauty of shapes, structure, stories, scenes and sounds.

The Art of Guidance

This is an exhibition on the philosophical teachings of leadership comparable to those found in Roman, Greek, or Chinese civilisations. Collections on display are first editions of publications in philosophy.

RAKNM new flow and exhibitions

The Ras Al Khaimah National Museum project consists of Revitalizing the overall building include structural restoration, renovation and renewal of exhibitions. Experiment in restoration was done after the planning approved in Q4 of 2019. Since 2020, the museum has launched new exhibitions that include the subjects of archaeology, ethnography with related contemporary expressions, living tradition and modern history.

In 2024, almost 80% of the RAKNM’s ground floor has been restored and renovated. Previously, the museum established its first exit and service access, welcoming area, and “open storage exhibition” to be part of an upcoming Julfar Gallery.

Location: Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Duty period: Since May 2019

Renewal of Ethnography Exhibitions

The Ethnography wing of the museum has yet to be updated since its establishment in the 90s. In 30 years of its existence, the exhibition was based on the point of view of European anthropologists that shrunk the cultural richness of the emirate into simplified highlights to understand where poeople lives, pearling, agriculture, simple weaving and daily tools.

previous EtHnography permanent exhibition

NEW Ethnography : Tamra (November 2020 - November 2022)

“Tamra” is the name for date palm fruits when it has reach the age of more than two weeks, when it has reached its perfection in deliciousnes, visualy identified by its dark brown color. The title was chosen for this exhibit to accentuate its authenticity in showing the various cultural heritage, history, craft, contemporary expression and importance of date palm gardens in the region since as early as the Iron Age. The stories presented in different parts of the exhibitions are collective memories of local people about lifestyles before the 60s.

NEW Ethnography : Madbasa (permanent exhibition)

The exhibition was an unplanned initiative as the gallery used to display the Natural History Collection. In 2019, the team discovered a “madbasa” feature under the floor in the middle of the rooms' restoration. Madbasa is a room that extracts juice from tamra using pressure, heat, and gravity. The revitalisation project swiftly plans and establishes a permanent installation in these two-room galleries.

Included in the exhibition is a living plant grown from one of the two date palm seeds discovered in the gallery's archaeological excavation process. The permanent exhibition opens for the public since Nov 2020.

NEW Ethnography : Madbasa (permanent exhibition)

The gallery's second room is smaller and still has the original pottery in the corner. The pottery functioned to gather the juice pressed out of the dates.

Installing lights in the date juice channels aims to illustrate the juice's flow. Visitors can walk inside on the added metal path to secure the structure. This installation is inspired by a similar installation in a fort in Bahrain.

Weaponry (since March 2022)

The museum’s first gallery on weaponry by displaying weapons that combines private collection of the late Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed and gifts from the first generation of policemen of Ras Al Khaimah.

get in touch

prepared in 2024

Base

Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates

Jakarta, Indonesia

Phone

(+971) 50 848 1025

(+62) 812 8370 8886

annissa.gultom@gmail.com