View source for Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress

{{short description|Cultural museum in Agats, Indonesia}}
{{Infobox museum
| name                = Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress
| native_name         = ''Museum Kebudayaan dan Kemajuan Asmat''
| image               = Image:Male Crocodile (48290419611).jpg
| imagesize           = 
| caption             = A male crocodile specimen on display at the museum
| alt                 = 
| location            = [[Agats]], [[Papua (province)|Papua]], [[Indonesia]]
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| coordinates = {{Coord|-5.5405295|138.1341535|display=inline,title}}
| established         = 1973
| dissolved           = 
| type                = [[Art museum]], anthropology museum
| collections          = [[Asmat people|Asmat art]]
| visitors            = 
| director            = Eric Sarkol
| president           = 
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}}
The '''Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress''' ({{langx|id|Museum Kebudayaan dan Kemajuan Asmat}}) is located in the city of [[Agats]] in [[South Papua]], [[Indonesia]]. It was conceived by the Catholic Crosier missionary [[Frank Trenkenschuh]] in 1969 as a way to preserve traditional [[Asmat people|Asmat]] art as well as provide economic outlets to the Asmat people.  It was built by the Catholic Crosier Diocese of Agats-Asmat, which also owns the museum, and supported by Crosier Fathers and Brothers Bishop [[Alphonsus Augustus Sowada|Alphonse Sowada]], originally from [[Elmdale, Minnesota]], US.<ref name="Crosier Bishop Sowada and Diocesan Art Museum">{{cite web | url=http://mission.stcdio.org/mission-office-homepage/global-solidarity/global-connections/papua/ | title=The late Bishop Alphonse Sowada: 40 years of missionary service; Crosiers and the Asmat; Asmat Museum: Preservation of a People | publisher=Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud Mission Office | access-date=16 July 2015 | archive-date=17 July 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717075501/http://mission.stcdio.org/mission-office-homepage/global-solidarity/global-connections/papua/ | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="AMAA@UST">{{cite web | url=http://art.stthomas.edu/asmat/about-the-museum | title=AMAA@UST | publisher=St. Thomas University, St. Paul, MN, US | access-date=16 July 2015 | archive-date=17 July 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717033427/http://art.stthomas.edu/asmat/about-the-museum | url-status=dead }}</ref>

The American artist [[Tobias Schneebaum]] and Ursula and Gunter Konrad helped in establishing the museum and it officially opened on August 17, 1973.<ref name="Asmat History">{{cite web|url=http://www.holmes.anthropology.museum/asmat/history.html |title=Asmat History |publisher=Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology, Wichita State University, US |access-date=16 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150710035831/http://www.holmes.anthropology.museum/asmat/history.html |archive-date=10 July 2015 }}</ref>

The museum has catalogued approximately 1,200 items to its collection.<ref name="SCHN">{{cite book |title=Asmat Images |last=Schneebaum |first=Tobias |publisher=Crosier Mission Press |year=1985 |isbn=0-918728-59-2}}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> Over 600 are on display, including over 300 sculptural pieces, ancestor poles, shields, and drums.<ref>{{cite book |title=Asmat: Perception of Life in Art: The Collection of the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress |publisher=K. Kühlen Verlag GmbH & Co. KG |publication-place=Mönchengladbach, Germany |editor1=Ursula Konrad |editor2=Alphonse Sowada |editor3=Gunter Konrad |isbn=3-87448-229-4<!--English ISBN cited; German: ISBN 3-87448-227-8; Indonesian editions: ISBN 3-87448-228-6--> |date=2002}}</ref>

Later, upon retiring to his native [[St. Cloud, Minnesota|St. Cloud]], MN, US area, Bishop emeritus Sowada was also instrumental in founding a second Asmat museum, the [[American Museum of Asmat Art]] which opened in 1995 at the [[University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)|University of St. Thomas]] in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]], [[Minnesota]], where it also appears under the acronyms AMAA and AMAA@UST.<ref name="AMAA@UST"/>

The director of the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress, as of 2007, has been Eric Sarkol with John Ohoiwirin as assistant.

Building upon a 1968–1974 [[United Nations]] funded Asmat wood carving project, the museum hosts an annual woodcarving competition and auction. The 31st Asmat Culture Festival sponsored by the Museum was scheduled for 8–13 October 2015.<ref name="Asmat History"/><ref name="31st Asmat Culture Festival sponsored by the Museum">{{cite web | url=https://www.facebook.com/359194677580073/photos/a.359210410911833.1073741828.359194677580073/471125063053700/?type=1&theater | title=31st Asmat Culture Festival sponsored by the Museum | publisher=Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress | access-date=16 July 2015}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="4">

File:Museum Asmat (48280683281).jpg|Exterior of the museum, 2019
File:Spirit Masks (48285842547).jpg|Paper mulberry spirit masks
File:Asmat Carving.jpg|Asmat carving
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite web|url=http://www.asmatmuseum.com/ |title='''Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress''' (official website) |access-date=16 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717200437/http://www.asmatmuseum.com/ |archive-date=17 July 2015 }}
*{{cite web | url=https://www.facebook.com/pages/Asmat-Museum-of-Culture-and-Progress/359194677580073 | title=Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress facebook page | access-date=16 July 2015}}
*{{cite web | url=http://www.asmat.de/en/261/0/0/91_Documentation/index.html | title=Asmat Kunst, Kultur, Zusammenarbeit | publisher=ASMAT ART GALERIE KONRAD GMBH & CO. KG | access-date=16 July 2015 | archive-date=23 September 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923175344/http://www.asmat.de/en/261/0/0/91_Documentation/index.html | url-status=dead }}
*{{cite web | author=Schneebaum, Tobias | title=Asmat Images from the Collection of the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress: Text, Photographs and Drawings, Paperback – 1985 | url=https://www.amazon.com/Images-Collection-Museum-Culture-Progress/dp/0918728592 | access-date=16 July 2015}}
*{{Cite journal|first=Tobias |last=Schneebaum |author-link=Tobias Schneebaum |date=1982-10-31 |title=The Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress |journal=Cultural Survival Quarterly |volume=6 |issue=4 |url=http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/the-asmat-museum-culture-and-progress |access-date=2008-11-22}}

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[[Category:Museums in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Art museums and galleries in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Anthropology museums]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in South Papua]]
[[Category:Local museums in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Asmat–Kamrau languages]]
[[Category:Art museums and galleries established in 1973]]
[[Category:1973 establishments in Indonesia]]