Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA)

The Agung Rai Museum of Art, usually shortened to ARMA, is a museum and cultural centre on Jalan Raya Pengosekan, close to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. It was founded by Agung Rai, a Balinese advocate of art and culture, and was officially opened on 9 June 1996 by Indonesia's minister of education and culture. It is run by the ARMA Foundation, set up in the same year, and brings together a gallery, gardens, a performance stage, a café and a resort in one compound, which makes it feel more like a small cultural village than a conventional museum.

The museum collection is shown in two buildings and, according to ARMA, includes more than 200 paintings by different artists in a range of styles. The range runs from classical Kamasan painting on bark to contemporary work, with masterpieces by Batuan artists of the 1930s and 1940s and Balinese masters such as I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Ida Bagus Made, Anak Agung Gede Sobrat and I Gusti Made Deblog. Foreign artists who lived in Bali, including Rudolf Bonnet and Willem Hofker, are represented, and the German painter Walter Spies has a special place in the collection. ARMA also holds works by the 19th-century Javanese painter Raden Saleh. A visit is a good complement to the Neka Art Museum and Museum Puri Lukisan, which tell the same story from different collections. There is also a bookshop, a library and a reading room.

ARMA is also a centre for the performing and traditional arts. The open-air stage in the grounds hosts regular performances, and there are regular children's dance sessions on the art verandah, where young dancers train. The centre runs cultural workshops in traditional crafts and arts, which are a practical way to spend a rainy afternoon or to give children a hands-on introduction to Balinese culture.

The grounds cover about six hectares of Balinese gardens, and ARMA Warung Kopi is a pleasant place to sit with Balinese coffee or tea after a tour of the galleries. ARMA Resort, within the same compound, offers rooms and villas for those who want to stay on site. For workshop schedules and current performance times, contact ARMA directly, as programmes change.

Allow an hour or two for the museum and gardens, more if you join a workshop. ARMA suits families, couples and anyone with an interest in Balinese art. It lies a few hundred metres east of the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, so the two fit easily into the same morning or afternoon.