As the cultural heart of Bali, it's only fitting that the city is home to several museums that collect and display the rich history of Balinese arts. There are four main museums around town. Depending on where you're staying, these are within easy walking distance. All except the ARMA museum are on Ubud Raya street.
The ARMA museum, while displaying the work of many traditional Balinese artists, also has a very interesting modern collection, and also puts on traditional dance shows as well.
Neka aims to preserve the traditional Balinese arts, while also collecting some of the finest examples of contemporary art. The museum also has an extensive display of keris daggers.
Ubud's oldest museum is also the closest to the center of town. Puri Lukisan was started by an artists cooperative formed by the King of Ubud and his brother, as well as a couple of prominent foreign artists.
The Agung Rai Museum of Art (more commonly referred to as ARMA) is on the "other", south, side of Ubud from the rest of the major art museums. It is also quite different in many other respects as well. ARMA bills itself as a center for the visual and performing arts. Indeed, what forms the grand entrance to the museum grounds in the daytime doubles as a stage for traditional dance performances in the evening.
One of my most memorable museum experiences is Salvadore Dali's own personally designed museum in Figueres, Spain. These memories were instantly recalled when I first caught sight of the Blanco Museum in Ubud, with it's over-sized entrance arch and gold-painted Balinese dancers on the roof. Inside, you won't find stark spaces painted white. Rather, there are bold colors like indigo blue and Chinese red on the walls, columns capped with ornate Corinthian capitals and doors framed with traditional Balinese stone carving.
The grounds and galleries of the Neka Museum The Neka Art Museum sits up on the hill in the Tjampuhan area on the west side of the Tjampuhan River. The museum has its orgins in the 1970s when Pande Wayan Suteja Neka realized that there was no repository for traditional Balinese arts in Bali itself. He started collecting works and building the museum, which was officially recognized by the Indonesian government in 1982.
The Museum Puri Lukisan lays claim to be the oldest art museum in Ubud. It has its roots in the formation of the Pitamaha Artist Cooperative in 1936. The foundation was the initiative of the King of Ubud, Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati; his brother Tjokorda Gde Raka Sukawati; the German artist Walter Spies, who settled in Bali in 1927; and the Dutch artist Rudolf Bonnet, who came to Bali in 1929.
