ABSTRACT
As a public space, museum is always influenced by its context, either political and social. Therefore, today’s fast changing society and political transformation has pushed museum to be an adaptive and inclusive institution. However, not many museums in Indonesia are able to transform themselves to be more relevant in current age. This condition will make public getting further from their heritage that preserved in the museum. Unfortunately, academic efforts to disentangle this problem is relatively little since many scholars have already skeptical about museum management in the country. Thus, museum and heritage regulation is still considered incomprehensive to respond today’s challenge.
In order to find the origin of this problem, research on museum activities was conducted in five museums of Jakarta, national capital and barometer of museum development in Indonesia. The five museums chosen have different types of collection and owner. In this research, data was collected through observation and interviews with museum workers. Unsurprisingly, the results presented in this paper shows that museum management is the most critical aspect in transforming museum to be more adaptive and inclusive. This paper also offers new approach for regulator to overcome problems regarding museum management issue.
