There is a controversy in the society that some people stated that government supposed to stop budget on art galleries and museums, while some others think the opposite. In my opinion, government supposed to support art galleries and museum since not many private investors would like to invest in these niche sector. It is important for government to balance their budget, instead of focus on certain field.
Museum and art galleries play an important role in a community, one of that is education. By visiting either or both, visitor going to enrich their knowledge in history or inspired by the art work that he/she just saw. While educate the visitor through these facilities, the government preserve national heritage at the same time. Not stop in there, museum and art galleries can be a tourist attraction that can contribute for the government income.
Indonesian first president (Ir. Soekarno) said that big nations are those that honor their history. History is often seen as an important thing, whereas each one of us can learn many thing through mistake or success of our ancestors. I do agree that other sectors like health care, infrastructure, formal education are important, but it does not mean we can obey the rest. It is important for the government to build the decent environment for investment, so the investors would having an interest to fund in national issues such as: preserving the national heritage and culture.
In my opinion, collaboration and mutual understanding can be a promising way out to fund sectors like museums and art galleries.