If you happen to pass along Jl. Bintaran 16 in Yogyakarta, you are likely to see a beautifully preserved 100-year-old joglo hall connected to an equally impressive Javanese-colonial-era style house. The previously unsightly and dilapidated building is now noticeably brighter, with newly painted white walls and orange roofing tiles. The interior is clean and neat and the fragrance of fresh kantil flowers dominates its newly refurbished rooms.

A name board placed in front of the building, facing north, says that it is now the office of the Karta Pustaka Indonesian-Dutch Cultural Center. A foundation that aims to provide courses in the Dutch language, it has a library of mostly Dutch books along with other collections, and conducts cultural activities. "We just moved here last month," center executive director Anggi Minarni told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, after hosting the official inauguration of the new offices.

The house was deliberately chosen as part of Karta Pustaka's goal to help preserve the city's heritage from uncontrolled development and possible destruction. "In 2004 we officially included heritage preservation as one of our missions," Anggi said. The center has been actively involved in heritage preservation in the city since 2000 and is a member of the Yogyakarta Heritage Preservation Forum and the Jogja Heritage Society.

"Preserving heritage is an integral part of a cultural organization like Karta Pustaka," Anggi said. Every time it had moved offices, Karta Pustaka had renovated the colonial buildings it was based in, she said. "It's unfortunate, however, that once we move from each house they often don't end up being protected in the same way," she said. When restoring the present house it had invited the local heritage communities for advice.

Officially established on March 11, 1968, by the Karta Pustaka Foundation in cooperation with the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta, the center was initially the Nederlandse Leeszaal or Yogyakarta's Dutch Reading Room. With a collection of 600 books and 10 different kinds of magazines written in Dutch, it was mainly opened to support a Dutch course set up in 1950 by language teacher Lies Simadibrata in response to the demand for Dutch in the city.

Simadibrata is a co-founder of the Karta Pustaka Foundation together with the late Dick Hartoko, prominent Catholic priests, and the late Soepojo Padmodipoetro of Gadjah Mada University. Two years later, however, the reading room was expanded into an Indonesian-Dutch cultural center and received its current name. Its activities were broadened with the aim of increasing relations between Indonesia and the Netherlands.

"We have long been a place for both Indonesian and Dutch artists to exhibit and perform. By doing so we are introduced to the Dutch culture and at the same time introduce our culture to visiting Dutch people," Anggi said, mentioning noted Indonesian poet WS Rendra as one artist whose career was spurred on by his performances on Karta Pustaka's stage. Other figures who performed or exhibited at the center include the late poets Linus Suryadi AG and Landung Simatupang, artist Eddie Hara, and the late batik artist Amri Yahya.

Karta Pustaka has routinely held art and cultural events, including art and photo exhibitions, jazz and classical music concerts, poetry readings, lectures, workshops, modern ballet performances and film screenings, to complement its core Dutch language courses and library. Some events are solely center-run while others are managed in cooperation with other institutions like the Bentara Budaya Yogyakarta cultural center and the CCF French cultural center.

"When putting on (cultural and art activities), however, we are very selective. Only activities that really make a meaningful contribution to the people's education are organized," said Anggi, who has been working with the center since 1992. In terms of Dutch-language courses, Karta Pustaka provides elementary, intermediate, and advanced classes. There are currently three classes running, with each consisting of between 12 and 13 students. These exclude other students who prefer to have one-on-one private tuition.

"Every May we also provide an international examination managed by a Dutch Language Institution in Louvain, Belgium, whose certificates are internationally recognized. It's like a TOEFL for English proficiency," Anggi said. The library is also a great place for people looking for information related to Dutch culture, with its hundreds of collections of slides, music cassettes, Dutch language learning resources, and educational documentary videos. It also has collections of Dutch artifacts from the colonial era, including crockery.

Most of the collections, according to Anggi, are donations from the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta, which has been Karta Pustaka's long-time patron and supporter.