The Organisation

The Nusantara Performing Arts Research Centre (NusPARC) is a multi-faceted organisation with several programmes dedicated to the advancement of the performing arts in Southeast Asia. The Education Programme offers outreach classes for school-going children as well as to the public at large. A major part of NusPARC activities are educational in nature, as the Centre maintains a teaching and rehearsal studio for classes in the dance and music of Malaysia, a library/conference room, and administrative offices. The NusPARC facilities also offer space for professional-level rehearsals, workshops, seminars, meetings, and other events related to the performing arts.

Another part of the NusPARC Education Programme is devoted to providing funds, in the form of grants, to individual scholars for research and documentation in the traditional and contemporary performing arts of Southeast Asia through a competitive and screened application process. NusPARC also solicits applications from scholars and organisations for the purpose of attending or organising seminars, symposia, and workshops that are educational in nature to explain traditional or newly-composed works. However, NusPARC does not fund the production of concerts or performances.

Through its Publications Programme, NusPARC provides grants for new monographs, especially for the final publishing processes of peer-reviewed manuscripts. In this connection NusPARC Books, the publishing branch of the Research Centre, may sponsor or co-sponsor the publication of written or audio/visual materials on the Southeast Asian performing arts (current items available for purchase are listed on this site in the 'Store' link).

NusPARC is operated on a daily basis by an Executive Director, a Programme Officer, Associate Managers, and a small team of Research/Academic Fellows permanently attached to the Centre.  From time to time, NusPARC also invites Visiting Research Fellows for short periods of time to carry out special projects. For the grant-giving programme, an independent screening committee reviews applications in the competitive selection process for grants. Grant applications may be submitted at any time, and notification to the applicants is made within a 6 month period of time or sooner, depending on the application and project.

NusPARC offices are located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and in the USA.  See the Contact page for current postal, telephone and electronic contacts.

Mission Statement

The mission of this organisation is to support and stimulate the teaching, research, and documentation in the performing arts of Insular Southeast Asia (Nusantara). Through its support of class learning, research, documentation, publications, and financial assistance to scholars, this Centre intends to promote the preservation and especially the nurturing of the traditional and contemporary performing arts, including music, dance, theater and proto-theater genres throughout the Southeast Asian region, and to provide educational materials for use in all levels of teaching and for the public at large.

More on Programmes and Projected Outcomes

The class teaching of the young and the grant giving activities are intended to help address the challenges faced by the current and next generation of teachers and scholars in the performing arts in Southeast Asia. Our work supports the initiatives of young, talented instructors, scholars, and artists, particularly those in Southeast Asian countries, many of whom would otherwise not have the opportunity to carry out their interests and intended research and documentation projects. These projects, in the end, become the materials used in classrooms for teaching purposes and for the interested public. The research and documentation carried out under our programmes also become the archival materials for preservation and historical purposes for future generations.

Our intended goals, in the grant-giving programme, are to seek out qualified scholars and graduate-level students in music, dance, and theater, who are in need of financial assistance to carry out documentation and research in the performing arts of Southeast Asia; and to help them complete the publication process on manuscripts based on their fields of endeavour.  Thus, NusPARC seeks out scholars and graduate-level students who are in need of financial aid to attend seminars, symposia, and workshops, and to provide stipends to organisations that are planning and conducting symposia or workshops for educational purposes in conjunction with possible planned performances.