On Tuesday, May 14, 2024, students of the UGM’s Magister Program in Performing Arts and Visual Arts Studies conducted a field lecture on Visual Studies Theories by attending the opening of the Suluh Sumurup Art Festival 2024. The festival was held from May 14 to 22, 2024 and took place at the Yogyakarta Cultural Park. Different from last year’s event, which only involved disabled artists from the Yogyakarta region, the second Suluh Sumurup Art Festival this year presents 202 works from disabled artists from 12 provinces in Indonesia. The artists’ works are exhibited at the Taman Budaya Yogyakarta art gallery.
This year’s Suluh Sumurup Art Festival has the title “Jumangkah”, which means “to start stepping to achieve hopes and dreams”. Dr. Budi Irawanto, the lecturer of this course, is also one of the three curators of the festival together with Nano Warsono and Sukri Budi Dharma. In this field lecture, the students were given the responsibility of making notes about the visualities of the exhibited works in relation to disability. The students’ notes, which are the result of observations and interactions during the field lecture, will be discussed in the next lecture meeting.
Dra. Purwiati, the Head of the Yogyakarta Cultural Park, said that art activities like this have an impact on disabled friends to get equality and equal opportunities in their creative process. This is in line with SDGs number 10 and 17 related to reduced inequalities and partnerships for the goals. (AU)
