Director/Curator: Tjokorda Gde Arsa Artha
Tjokorda Gde Arsa Artha was born in Ubud, Bali,
Indonesia on June 6, 1960. Growing up in a Balinese royal family, he studied all
the traditional arts of his homeland. As an accomplished dancer, musician, and
artist, he came to the United States in 1982, attending the Art Students,
League on scholarship. Through the Asia Society of New York and other
organizations, he has frequently participated in programs representing the
visual and performing arts of Bali, including dance performances, workshops,
and demonstrations of Balinese techniques in painting, crafts, and dance.
He has performed at the American
Museum of Natural History, the Asia Society of New York, La Mama Theater,
the South China Sea's Promotion at Bloomingdale's of New York and Connecticut,
the Morris Museum of New Jersey, the Bali-Java Dance Theater, the Balinese-American
Dance Theater, and the Asian-American Dance Theater. As Artistic Director to the
Indonesian Consulate General, he organized and directed "Dharma Swara",
a Balinese gamelan group performing traditional music and dance of Bali.
As a fine artist, he has
exhibited wildly. His work is in the permanent collection of the Government
of Indonesia. In 1989 he was commissioned by UNICEF to do a painting for
The Flags of the United Nations; i.e. "The Little Cowboy". In July, 1997 he
was an award recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. As a permanent
resident of the United States, he is currently the Director/Curator of the
Pomona Cultural Center in Pomona, New York, and is active in commission
painting and promoting the art and culture of Bali.