Celebrating National Batik Day on October 20, 2016, Art and Design Faculty Universitas Sebelas Maret (FSRD UNS) Surakarta carried out an exhibition entitled “Wonderful International Batik Exhibition” held on September 30, 2016 to October 5, 2016 at Art Gallery of FSRD UNS. This international exhibition is a part of International Batik Short Course activity which previously held in two phase. The first session was done on July and the second one was on September.
Some batiks made by the students, FSRD lecturers and foreign students were displayed in Wonderful International Batik Exhibition.
This exhibition shows the works of the students, FSRD lecturers and 23 foreign students from various countries who had joined International Batik Short Course before. They come from China, India, England, Madagascar, Malaysia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Australia, and Yaman. This exhibition also displays the documentation of foreign students when they were having International Batik Short Course.
International Wonderful Batik Exhibition consists of three series of events; pre-event which had done on September 25, 2016 in Solo Car Free Day, creative sharing which was held on October 1, 2016 and Batik Workshop which was held on October 2, 2016 at Batik Laboratory of Textile Craft Department FSRD UNS. In the pre-event occasion, hundreds of people were invited to know more about batik by trying to make batik using canting cap on 15 yard-white fabric.
The Chief of Textile Craft Department FSRD UNS Tiwi Bina Affanti said that this exhibition aimed at introducing batik deeper to the youth, especially to foreigners so that they can be more interested learning batik since it is very unique art. In addition, she also stated that through this international batik exhibition, FSRD shows its contribution to conserve and to develop batik, as well as support UNS internationalization process.
The foreign students joined International Batik Short Course were showing their batik.
For further, FSRD wants to conduct a special agenda addressed to the society both local and foreign, to learn the techniques of batik dasar (basic), batik terampil (skilled), and batik mahir (advanced). “Later, we want to cooperate with International Office UNS, to arrange the development strategy, so that we can be the center of batik learning. So, if there are people want to learn about batik, they can directly come to UNS,” she concluded.[](wulan.trans.uns.ac.id)