Arcinda
Based in Colorado, the grant supported a April 27, 2025 music and dance performance at the Denver Museum. Arcinda is a community-based organization of Americans and Indonesians exploring the performing arts of Indonesia.
Based in Colorado, the grant supported a April 27, 2025 music and dance performance at the Denver Museum. Arcinda is a community-based organization of Americans and Indonesians exploring the performing arts of Indonesia.
Kerjama USA/India & Indonesia in California Festival
Kerja Sama USA is a community development organization based in Berkeley California with fifty years of engagement with Indonesia,dedicated to supporting communities in Southeast. The 50th YEARS: Indonesia-Indian-California Artist Exchange Festival (“Festival”) will celebrate “world music” exchanges between Javanese-Sundanese Balinese-Indian and local California artists in the San Francisco Bay Area, Asia and beyond through cultural retention, environmental resiliency through STEAM education, arts and social practice, communitydevelopment best practices and entrepreneurship.saka Sun da is a gamelan degung ensemble, directed by Burhan Sukarma and Rae Ann Stahl, dedicated to performing traditional and contemporary gamelan degung music fromest ava, Indonesia.Pusaka Sunda is a gamelan degung ensemble, directed by Burhan Sukarma and Rae Ann Stahl, dedicated to performing traditional and contemporary gamelan degung music from West Java, Indonesia.
Kerja Sama USA is a community development organization based in Berkeley California with fifty years of engagement with Indonesia,dedicated to supporting communities in Southeast. The 50th YEARS: Indonesia-Indian-California Artist Exchange Festival (“Festival”) will celebrate “world music” exchanges between Javanese-Sundanese Balinese-Indian and local California artists in the San Francisco Bay Area, Asia and beyond through cultural retention, environmental resiliency through STEAM education, arts and social practice, communitydevelopment best practices and entrepreneurship.saka Sun da is a gamelan degung ensemble, directed by Burhan Sukarma and Rae Ann Stahl, dedicated to performing traditional and contemporary gamelan degung music fromest ava, Indonesia.Pusaka Sunda is a gamelan degung ensemble, directed by Burhan Sukarma and Rae Ann Stahl, dedicated to performing traditional and contemporary gamelan degung music from West Java, Indonesia.
Los Angeles Gamelan Festival/Center for World Music
With events hosted by the Indonesian Consulate General in LA, the Center for World Music organized a 2-day gamelan festival on June14-15 featuring a range of Indonesian musical traditions:showcasing various cultures from all over Indonesia. Featured groups included Sekar Jaya, Tunas Mekar, Sari Raras, Burat Wangi, and others. in addition to bringing the greater Los Angeles community and Indonesian diaspora together, the festival will celebrate the 50th teaching Anniversary of two highly respected teachers in the Los Angeles Gamelan community, Bapak Nyoman Wenten and Ibu Nanik Wenten
Jacob's Pillow-Prehistoric Body Theater |
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AICEF's grant to America's premier performance center for dance enabled a performance by Prehistoric Body Theater, an innovative dance collective based in Solo, Indonesia: Ari Dharminalan Rudenko and Sofyan Joyo Utomo are its artistic directors and choregographers. Prehistoric Body Theater (PBT) is an Indonesia-based paleoart performance company specializing in"deep-time animal dance," which embodies a celebration of humanity’s shared evolutionary ancestry and Life’s epic origin story as revealed by the science of paleontology. PBT operates at the intersection of fine art performance and science outreach and education, crafting universal narratives with unique local cultural and aesthetic impulses. Founded in 2017 by American interdisciplinary artistic director Ari Dharminalan Rudenko (based in Indonesia since 2012 and a Ph.D. candidate in dance studies at the Indonesian Institute for the Arts Surakarta), PBT’s creative team lives and works together at the "Nest," a jungle studio in Surakarta, Central
Java, Indonesia. The group's performance is based on paleontological research in Montana's Hell Creek region whose fossils tell the story of an asteroid that hit our planet 66 million years ago and the early primates who survived. (Photographs by Chistopher Duggan)
Java, Indonesia. The group's performance is based on paleontological research in Montana's Hell Creek region whose fossils tell the story of an asteroid that hit our planet 66 million years ago and the early primates who survived. (Photographs by Chistopher Duggan)
Friends of the Gamelan
Friends of the Gamelan (FROG) successfully presented Legong Kraton Lasem, a traditional Balinese dance drama, at the Madison Street Theater in Oak Park on September 27, 2025. The event was produced in partnership with internationally recognized Balinese artist I Dewa Ketut Alit Adnyana, who collaborated with the FROG ensemble to bring this intricate form of music and dance to Chicago audiences.
AICEF’s support was instrumental in removing admission fees, allowing this performance to reach a broad and diverse audience. The event sold out in advance, drawing 160 attendees representing families, students, and community members from throughout the Chicago region. Many audience members had never previously experienced Balinese performing arts, and several expressed that the performance provided a rare and inspiring introduction to Indonesia’s living cultural traditions.
AICEF’s support was instrumental in removing admission fees, allowing this performance to reach a broad and diverse audience. The event sold out in advance, drawing 160 attendees representing families, students, and community members from throughout the Chicago region. Many audience members had never previously experienced Balinese performing arts, and several expressed that the performance provided a rare and inspiring introduction to Indonesia’s living cultural traditions.
Video of one the group's musical performances at the September 2025 event.
Silent Films of Garin Nugroho at Asia Society
AICEF's grant supported screenings on October 3 and 4, 2025 of Garin Nugroho's Setan Jawa and Opera Jawa with live music performed by the Peni Candra Rini Ensemble. A Q & A with the audience followed each screeening. Garin Nugroho is a pioneer of major national film festivals and a key figure in bringing Indonesian cinema to the international stage, with his films featured at renowned festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, and Busan. His creative work extends beyond film into performing and visual arts, with stage production's and installations showcased across Australia and Europe.
World Angklung Day 2025
On November 15, Indonesia Lighthouse celebrated 15 years of UNESCO's recognition of Indonesia's unique bamboo instrument and its music. Angklung accompanied agrarian rituals, later became a voice of resistance to colonial rule, and in 1938 Daeng Soetigna created a diatonic version that has allowed angklung to mesh with other musical tradition in and outside of Indonesia. The performances took place in Millbrae California.
NY City Klenengan- Gamelan Kusuma Laras
On December 13, 2025 Gamelan Kusuma Laras (led by I.M. Harjito), hosted by the Consulate General of Indonesia, held a 6 hour klenengan (open rehearsal), attended by over 100 people, AICEF's grant allowed the group to feature the following guest artists: Peni Candra Rini, Darsono Hadirahardjo, and Heri Purwanto
