Subak Museum

Subak Museum is definetely one of the most interesting museums in Bali. It is located in Sanggulan village two km east of Tabanan. This is the only museum in Bali to focus on agriculture, provides all information on agricultural life of Bali and all its related aspects. As its name suggest the main display in Subak Museum is the miniature of Subak which provides series of pictures of development of a Subak from finding a wellspring, creating tunnels and dams, channeling water through tunnels and dams to managing the water in the rice fields.

Displays of farming implements for cutting, cleaning and pounding rice; tools for leveling land, ploughing, weeding, and digging water tunnels; various fish traps; tweezers for catching eels, wooden net used to catch dragonflies, and all implements in relation with Subak activities can be found here. The Subak Museum provides a film which describes the process of handling the agricultural land. This process consists of various activities, from the meeting of Subak members to arrange the Subak rules to cultivating the land up to expressing gratitude to God for a good harvest. The museum also shows the variety of ceremonies commonly conducted at various stages of the cultivation cycle.  There are also a miniature of kitchen with utensils used for cooking rice, a scale model of traditional house compounds which is built based on ancient architectural science of Asta Kosali Kosali.

For the visitors who want to get further information on Subak, a library with complete collection of books, palm leaves manuscripts and carved copper plates concerning with the Subak is at your service. The collections mainly deals with variety of rituals held at every stage of cultivation cycle, method of farming and auspicious days to start activities including their abstinences. The library not just houses collections in relation with Subak (irrigated field) but also provides complete collection of literature on Subak Abian (non-irigated ricefield). Subak Museum not just gives complete information on Subak but also provides an image on how deeply rice farming intertwines inextricably with daily life of Balinese as well as with Balinese culture and religion.

Sidik Jari Museum

Lies on Hayam Wuruk Street-Denpasar, Sidik Jari Museum is a private fine art museum established and owned by I Gusti Ngurah Gede Pemecutan. Sidik Jari Museum exhibits the work of its owner as well as other artists. The uniqueness of the collection in Sidik Jari Museum is that the paintings are done using the tips of the fingers in applying different colors or paints in order to represent the artist’s imagination. Sidik Jari Museum consists of a hall for exhibitions, a library, a studio, an open hall for various activities, and an outdoor stage for dance performances. It is open daily from 09.00 am to 04.00 pm except on public holidays.

Rudana Museum

Rudana Museum was established in 1995, with the main aim of providing an outstanding collection of paintings for the public to study and enjoy. Its presence must also be considered as complementing the existing total of fine art museums, which are much needed in order to improve the community’s level in the appreciation of the arts. Collections of artwork and the social history of the nation, which the future younger generations can inherit, are preserved in Rudana Museum. The invaluable collections are intrinsically a historical inheritance, which becomes a source of information and educational media. These are all most important for the development and transformation of culture and civilization from one generation to the next. Rudana Museum is also intended for artists and people of interest in this area to gather. Here they can exchange experiences and ideas on their respective fields of interest. The Collection was established through the purchase by Nyoman Rudana and Ni Wayan Olastini, who have exhibited tremendous dedication in their twenty-one years of work promoting Indonesian, especially Balinese, arts and artists.

The three floors of the Museum represent Balinese architectural philosophical concept of the Tri Angga, namely, the three parts of the human body: head, trunk, and legs. This concept, in the development of plastic art, represents the golden link of artists of the past and the present. The third floor of the Museum houses works of Balinese fine arts from classical to the Ubud and Batuan styles. Among the works in this collection are such outstanding names as I Gusti Nyoman Lempad and Ida Bagus Made. On the second and first floors, works of modern Indonesian fine arts are displayed, covering such widely-known names as: Affandi, Gunarsa, Wianta, and also the works of young and talented artists, such as Boyke Aditya, Nyoman Erawan, and Made Budhiana. Rudana Museum also has a great collection from renowned expatriates such as Antonio Blanco who have made Bali their physical and artistic home.

Puri Lukisan Museum

Puri Lukisan Museum is located about 200 meters from Puri Saren / Ubud Palace and it is dissociated by dell, climb a piece of wide plain with beautiful view. It is situated in calm and peaceful area of  Ubud Bali so that this place is an ideal place for who wish to see and enjoy result of art from all big actor like I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Ida Bagus Nyana, Anak Agung Gde Sobrat, I Gusti Made Deblog, Rudof Bonnet, Walter Spies and more. Puri Lukisan Museum is opened in the year 1956 by minister of Education and Culture, Mr. Moh. Yamin.

Puri Lukisan Museum is consisted of three special buildings in U-shape. In the middle of this museum is the courtyard and fishpond with the beautiful lotus flower. The building no 1 is a place for a permanent exhibition of puppets dressy or puppets style painting. This building is collecting the painting from I Gusti Nyoman Lempad and the clarification about the existence of Pita Maha Organization. The Building no. 2 is also a place for permanent exhibition or still from masterpiece result of all artist of Balinese modern dressy style. The Building no.3 is for a temporary exhibition.

Pasifika Museum

Amongst this sun bleached panorama, unexpected and seemingly far too unsuspected still, Pasifika, a Museum Pacific Asia resides. Obviously conceived with the refined and eclectic taste of a collector, paired to the delightful logic of a story teller, the museum reveals a flow of rooms filled with a wonderful and well opinionated selection of over 600 works of art created by no less than 140 artists originating from 20 different countries. As one of its co-founder, Philippe Augier states in the introduction of the book: ”the experience of contemplating artwork is a constant pleasure, because every moment spent in front of a painting offers a chance to evoke emotion, memories or dreams”. And so it is indeed, strolling through the 8 pavilions which form the museum’s gallery.The first gallery introduces to Indonesian artist such as Ida Bagus Nyoman Rai and its graphic, descriptive yet subtly poetic work, the wild, colourful often insightful pictorial expressions of Nyoman Gurnasa or the precise work of Made Wianta.

The following rooms exhibit a selection of pieces by European and other foreign artists, depicting their view, observation and impression of the island and its culture in particular, Indonesia and its diversity in general. Renown resident artists from Nieuwenkamp to Spies, Le Mayeur, Blanco, Friend, Hoffner and Meier are present along perhaps less known though nonetheless enchanting ones like Breetvett, Bettinger, Ambron and Lafugie to name a few. The tone changes somewhat from room 7 onwards, following a handful of the previously represented artists in their discovery of neighbouring countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Later yet artists from these very regions are then presented, with this time, distinct European artistic influence in their work. Judiciously the visit ends with a display of tribal artefacts and pictorial work from the more primal island of the region, sending one on a reflective course to the origin of creative expression at the base of all artistically developed culture.

Back in the entrance, a last glance notices a set of whimsical and illustrative maps by Mexican artist and traveller Miguel Covarrubias. These six lithographed murals entitled “Pageant of the Pacific” map the pacific rim, filled with characteristic pictorial elements of the various country or region, each titled with a theme: peoples, fauna and flora, art forms, economy, native dwellings and native means of transportation. Created in 1938 for the Golden Gate International Exhibition held in San Francisco in 1939, this collection of maps is the perfect emblem of the museum, both born out of a desire to share, expose and explore the fascinating art forms and multicultural heritage of the Asia pacific region.

Nyoman Gunarsa Museum

Nyoman Gunarsa Museum is located in the quite strategic route in the Banda three-way intersection, Takmung Village 3 Km the West direction to the Semarapura City. The Museum building is designed with the blend of the Balinese architect Modern. Nyoman Gunarsa Museum is displayed by various classic Balinese paintings both from the ancient legacy and art-works from his owner of I Nyoman Gunarsa. I Nyoman Gunarsa is one of the painter which distinguish for coming from Bali. Most of his masterpiece painting was taken from Bali folklore, and Hindu Dharma legend. Thats make his style of painting different from the other. Its masterpieces taken from artistry of Bali, like folk dance, traditional music, Balinese ceremony, and environmental variety.

Neka Art Museum

Neka Art Museum was opened in 1982 and is named after a Balinese teacher Suteja Neka who collected paintings as a means of artistic documentation. Nowadays Neka Art Museum has a great selection of works from many famous Balinese artists and expats who have lived here and influenced local artists. The Neka Art Museum collection is displayed in several buildings patterned after Balinese architecture. The main structures are for the permanent display of the government registered collection. Another building is used for temporary exhibitions. The Neka Art Museum has achieved high standards as a museum of international standing. By July of 1997 it covered an area of 9150 square metres, with 2580 square meters of floor space. The buildings are well maintained and the artworks are displayed and organized historically. The collection continues to grow over the years with over three – hundred pieces.