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Cirebon has its own unique classical architecture, batik textile, woodcarving, and reverse glass painting traditions. Cirebon music includes (among other genres) two kinds of gamelan: prawa and pelog; plus three archaic “proto gamelan” ensembles: gong renteng, denggung, and gong sekati. Cirebon is also known for its ancient topeng masked dance tradition, as well as two kinds of puppet theater: the wayang kulit shadow puppets, and the wayang golek rod puppets, sometimes called wayang cepak to differentiate it from the south central Javanese and Sundanese wayang golek traditions.

Chinese influences are readily apparent in the rock-and-cloud motif of Cirebonese art and Cirebon's barong sai or lion dance. While Islam is central to Cirebonese identity, the exploits of the (originally) Hindu gods and culture heroes are enacted in the area's popular shadow puppet theatre. Rites of thanksgiving to the spirits and propitiation to pre-Islamic ancestors are also held regularly in much of rural Cirebon. Some of the art forms practiced in the Cirebon region, such as gamelan and batik, are to be found elsewhere in Southeast Asia, though they are locally inflected in particularly Cirebonese ways. But many of Cirebon's art forms, including several of its major theatrical genres, are unique to this area. Most have been neglected in the popular and scholarly literatures on Indonesia.

Visitors to Cirebon’s ancient keraton (royal courts) sometimes have the sense they have stepped back in time. The visual impact of the palace architecture is startling. With their dramatic gapura split gates and numerous ornately carved pagoda-like pavilions surrounded by mortarless red brick walls with inset Ming Dynasty Chinese plates, the Cirebon Keraton seem much closer to colorful Balinese Hindu temples than to the staid Muslim palaces of central Java. This is not surprising since they date back to the last days of Java’s Hindu era in the 1400’s. In fact, scholars believe Cirebon’s royal courts are a kind of “missing link” to Java’s Hindu past.

Keraton Kasepuhan is generally considered the oldest of Cirebon’s three palaces. located at the site of the 15th century Pakung Wati, the palace of Cirebon’s first sultan, Sunan Gunung Jati. The palace maintains an impressive museum displaying the sultans’ iconic royal carriages (kereta kencana), heirloom keris daggers, dazzling woodcarvings, and several gamelan orchestras, the most important of which—the Gong Sekati, or Sekaten—is played twice a year in one of the numerous ancient Javanese pavilions on the palace grounds. The Yayasan Keraton Kasepuhan organization under P. R. Arief Natadiningrat has embarked on various programs to help promote and preserve Cirebon’s cultural heritage, including hosting Cirebon’s participants in the periodic national Keraton Festival.

Keraton Kanoman is walking distance from Kasepuhan and boasts equal claims to antiquity and cultural importance. Along with its ancient Hindu-Javanese pavilions and gateways, Kanoman too has a museum displaying ancient Cirebon carriages, keris and gamelan, although their venerable Gong Sekati orchestra is not on public display. Keraton Kanoman has an active sanggar (art group) called Klapa Jajar, under the direction of Pangeran Agus Djoni.

But it is the smallest and youngest of the Cirebon three royal courts—Keraton Kacirebonan—that has really taken the lead in opening up and preserving Cirebon’s previously restricted royal cultural treasures. The late Pangeran Haji Yusuf Dendabrata, more well-known as Elang Yusuf, was a virtual renaissance man of Cirebon culture. In addition to being the Lurah Seni (Arts Director) and Patih (second in command to the Sultan) of his palace, Elang Yusuf was personally active in the revival of the Cirebon arts of gamelan music, traditional dance, wood carving, glass painting, batik cloth, Cirebon architecture, and shadow puppet theater, performing as dalang (puppet master) in the Kacirebonan Palace shortly before his death in 2000.