BIAS – the British Indonesian Artists’ Society
is a non-profit making arts organisation, based in the UK, which provides
opportunities for exchange programmes and funding advice for artists from the
UK and Indonesia.
The inaugural project of this newly-formed organisation will be a touring
exhibition of the work of 12 artists: six of whom live and work in
Britain, and six who live and work in Indonesia.
To develop and enhance the themes of cross-cultural and trans-continental
creativity, an educational project aimed at young people
aged between 11-14 will run in parallel with the main
exhibition. Where the exhibition presents the work of
visual artists, the educational project will focus on literary creativity,
specifically the
short story. Six British children and six Indonesian children will
be selected from schools located across their respective countries to write
a short narrative on a particular theme; in the first case, the chosen
theme is ‘Ghosts’. Each story will be published in one
volume containing both English and Bahasa Indonesia translations. The
publications will be included in the BIAS touring exhibition and circulated
to schools, encouraging awareness of the unlimited capacity for imagination
and inventiveness that children across the world share.