About

Sanggar Ikhtiar is a community-based space for art and cultural practice in Kasugengan Kidul village, Depok district, Cirebon Regency, West Java. We think of it as a laboratory for practising art as a shared way of life.

Our name comes from ikhtiar: the commitment to keep making an effort, even when we cannot fully control time, outcomes, or how our work will be remembered. For us ikhtiar is not a motto but a habit: showing up, trying, taking notes, and trying again together.

The word sanggar comes from Javanese. Indonesia’s official dictionary (KBBI) gives it two meanings: a place of worship in the yard of a house, a place for artistic activity, and a gathering to exchange ideas about a field of work. Today a sanggar is mostly imagined as a school for traditional arts. We reclaim the word in a wider sense: a place to learn, to practise, and to organise ourselves together with others.

We work through four connected practices that need not follow a fixed order:
• Learning — through workshops, conversations, shared work, and exchanging experience.
• Mapping — understanding the people, places, histories, and relationships that shape a cultural practice.
• Archiving — recording, caring for, and contextualising knowledge so it can be revisited and used again.
• Publishing — circulating knowledge through publications, zines, exhibitions, and documentation.

The sanggar is open to neighbours, artists, students, researchers, and anyone who wants to take part. See the Schedule for upcoming activities, or message us on WhatsApp to use the space or collaborate.

Sanggar Ikhtiar works alongside Graphic Handler, Kiwari Kolektiv Studio, Yayasan Pustaka Seni Indonesia, Kopi Sanggar Ikhtiar, and Toko Rupawan, as well as a wider network.