The urge to be able to maintain social interaction has made us form a more mature and independent community, both in terms of activities (non-profit) to activities on how to find fundraising activities (profitable). It was not an easy matter at the beginning when we formed a community that we called SERRUM with an R (double) in the middle, communication between individuals became the basis for how this community could survive. That's how we define the word Community as 'Quality Communication', interacting and understanding each other.
Serrum is an art collective focused on art and education based in Jakarta, established in 2006. The name "Serrum" is derived from the combination of the words "share" and "room," which means "sharing room." Serrum focuses on issues related to education, socio-politics, and urban themes, using a presentation approach that combines art and education. Serrum's activities include art projects, exhibitions, workshops, discussions, and creative propaganda. The artistic mediums used include video, murals, graphics, comics, and installation art. In 2013, Serrum established Serrum Arthandling as one of its key focuses and business units.
Serrum has also developed non-formal education programs that began in 2014 with the theme Kurikulab, followed by Ekstrakurikulab in 2016, and Remedial in 2018. In the Remedial program, participants are encouraged to develop art projects based on the social context and knowledge of their surroundings. Students exchange information to generate new insights through an artistic approach.
In 2018, Serrum, together with ruangrupa and Grafis Huru Hara, established Gudskul Ecosystem, a collective learning space aimed at strengthening collaboration among art communities. This initiative represents one of Serrum's consistent efforts to support alternative education based on art and collaboration.
In 2020, Serrum contributed to the development of Presisi, a contextual learning paradigm based on project-based methods. This program was initiated in collaboration with Sanggar Anak Akar and Erudio Indonesia, and has been implemented in more than 100 schools across Indonesia.
History
The SERRUM community was formed on September 17, 2006, which we celebrate every year as SERRUM's birthday. Why September 17th? Determining the date is not difficult for us, September 17th is our first contract to rent a house on Jalan Sambiloto, and at the same time to remind us that the deadline for paying house rent is every year. The first SERRUM members consisted of 9 people, namely MG Pringgotono, Arman, Ombow, JJ Adhi Brata, M Sigit Budi S, Gunawan Wibisono and Arief Kurniawan who were the only SERRUM members not from the Jakarta State University Campus.
The patterns in obtaining funds to be able to survive and maintain the space we rent are very diverse, ranging from joint ventures of each individual who joins, seeking collective funds such as selling t-shirts that are printed on their own, getting work and being done together to just singing together. At that time, several members still had income from their jobs, such as teaching at schools to private lessons, newspaper layout designers, freelance designers, and several others depended on activities in serum such as t-shirt screen printing and book illustrations.
We started to doing our
program, such as project_or, propagraphic
movement , Kuliah Terbang , Senang
Belajar, Rumah Bambu social project and KRL
(Komik Rada Lucu) comic’s, that is our art, social and
education program.
Project_or is
a residency program for the local artist, and its collaboration works from the
chosen artist; and we supported them from research, documentation, discussion,
and a budget for to make an art works. Propagraphic Movement is
a propaganda street art movement program; Propagraphic Movement is criticize
the urban and social problems in Jakarta, and make a project in the early New
Year it is called P.A.T (Project Akhir Tahun), with an artworks in poster,
distribution and stick in it to the wall area at the street at Jakarta. Kuliah
Terbang is a program that provides a discussion with speaker from an
expert from any kind of knowledge and experience.
Serrum also had a social
program for children; first is Senang Belajar, that’s
we provide a classroom for mathematics and English language for children in our
nearest neighborhood. Second we support the street kid’s house with education
program such as English lesson, and computer, it’s called Rumah
Bambu, in there we also provide book’s for they’re library. Serrum also
made a newsletter with a local youth organization it’s called SAMPOS newsletter;
we support the budget for print, and teach them to use the computer for design
and layout.
A joint venture pattern from members every month with a system of expenses that are calculated and divided equally among each member, so our solution is to always be able to get shared funds that are used for home operations as well as programs every month.
Sharing roles in the management of the organization is important for us, each of which is busy and focuses on certain fields that are different from one another. The problem of financial flow and recording is a priority to always be maintained, both in terms of communication and distribution. We always use the form of shared finance in its management to be able to create value for each member's contribution with a tax contribution system from every incoming commercial work. The value of the tax that we run is based on a percentage of the work that comes in and is done, our agreement starts from 15% to 30% of the value of the profit. The value of the tax that we collect from each work that goes into the community's capital and treasury funds. This community cash, apart from covering operational costs and financing program activities, can also be borrowed as initial capital for work that enters the community.
One thing we are trying to do is create a system of rewards and punishments in each work target that has been mutually agreed upon. We always do financial juggles against variable income and definite expenses with a backup pattern (pinch / sudden allocation) to cover the lack of expenses both in the running program and also in house operations.
"Where there is income, there must be expenses" by Finance Team
The 2nd and 3rd years we went through at Sambiloto's house which was the first process we built to become a community that can continue to survive with educational programs (such as flying lectures, art practice workshops / Parktis, elementary school mathematics tutoring for local residents) and commercial-based programs (such as the print department which always accepts screen printing orders from t-shirts to pecel catfish banners, the multimedia department that works on web designs to NGO campaign videos) that produce.
