IVAA developed from the activities of the Cemeti Gallery (now the Cemeti Art House), which at the time required a wider and more comprehensive visual art program. As a result the Cemeti Art Foundation was formed in 1995, run by a different management, with the intention to expand, support, and promotes contemporary visual arts and other art forms with contemporary qualities and visions.

In April 2007 the Cemeti Art Foundation became Indonesian Visual Art Archive or IVAA with the intention to consolidate its position and focus as the only documentation, research, and exploration center on Indonesian visual arts.

IVAA is set up as a center for documentation, education, and information on contemporary visual arts. It is also an artist's database (which provides curriculum vitae and work concepts), and provides books, articles from various news publications, posters, catalogues, exhibition invites, photographs, slides, audio and visual recordings, discussion magazines, as well as documented speeches, seminars, and workshops.

There is a range of supporting activities. They include artists exchange programs, exhibitions and workshops, and discussions on visual arts from various perspectives involving artists, students and art enthusiasts. IVAA also holds seminars, discussions, and talks that bridge the gap between the art world and the wider public. IVAA is open to contributions of documentation materials, whether from individual or organizations, which will support its database and library program.

The database maintained by IVAA and has been accumulated for more than 10 years, and will continue to be.  The database is not passive or frozen data. On the contrary it is reutilized in a number of programs. IVAA also functions as a think-tank or creative laboratory to engage thought and action that supports the development of visual art and contemporary culture, practically as well as through dialogue.

The data at IVAA's Documentation Center is accessible to the wider public and categorized by need. These are:

• As population samples for research conducted by art students for the purposes of thesis production; for research conducted on Indonesian visual arts by researchers both in and out of the country; for journalists and the wider public with an interest in visual arts.
• As a resource for art appreciation, discussions, slide presentations, workshops, seminars, etc. IVAA also responds to requests from schools and non arts-based educational institutions to conduct art appreciation activities, such as slide presentations.
• As promotional materials, publications, brochures, leaflets, as well as promoting Indonesian artists to curators.