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Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative History
  • Administrative Information
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Art Works: Behind the Scenes at the Getty production materials
    Date (inclusive): 1995-1998 (bulk 1997)
    Number: IA40013
    Creator/Collector: J. Paul Getty Trust. Office of the President
    Physical Description: 63.7 linear feet (78 boxes, 1 enclosure, and 1 flat file)
    Repository:
    The Getty Research Institute
    Institutional Records and Archives
    1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
    Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
    (310) 440-7390
    archives@getty.edu
    Abstract: The records date from 1995 to 1998 and primarily comprise audiovisual and production materials generated by the Getty film project Art Works: Behind the Scenes at the Getty (1997). Materials comprise film reels, tapes, contracts, daily logs, storyboards, and other printed and electronic documentation on the project. Art Works is a 28-minute promotional film created to highlight the activities of the five programs of the Trust that were active during the time leading up to the opening of the Getty Center in 1997: the Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Grant Program, Getty Information Institute, Getty Education Institute, and Getty Museum. The film briefly spotlights the newly-opened Getty Center facility and highlights cultural heritage sites such as the Magao Grottoes, the Baltit Fort, and the Bonampak murals.
    Request Materials: To access physical materials at the Getty, go to the library catalog record  for this collection and click "Request an Item." Click here for general library access policy . See the Administrative Information section of this finding aid for access restrictions specific to the records described below. Please note, some of the records may be stored off site; advanced notice is required for access to these materials.
    Language: Collection material is in English

    Administrative History

    The J. Paul Getty Trust is a not-for-profit institution, educational in purpose and character, that focuses on the visual arts in all of their dimensions. As of 2013 the Trust supports and oversees four programs: the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Foundation, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Research Institute. The J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty programs serve a varied audience from two locations: the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa near Malibu, California.
    The origins of the J. Paul Getty Trust date to 1953, when J. Paul Getty established the J. Paul Getty Museum as a California charitable trust to house his growing art collections. Originally a small, private institution located in Mr. Getty's ranch house near Malibu, the museum moved to the newly constructed Getty Villa in grounds adjacent to the ranch house in 1974. When most of Mr. Getty's personal estate passed to the Trust in 1982, the Trustees decided that, given the size of the endowment, it should make a greater contribution to the visual arts and humanities than the museum could alone. Out of this resolve grew an expanded commitment to the arts in the general areas of scholarship, conservation, and education. This took the shape of new programs including the Center for the History of Arts and Humanities, Art History Information Institute, Conservation Institute, and Center for Education in the Arts, as well as smaller programs such as the Museum Management Institute and the Program for Art on Film. Williams supervised the Trust's development of new program areas with the advice and recommendations of advisors such as Lani Duke and Nancy Englander. In 1983 the trust's name was changed from the J. Paul Getty Museum to the J. Paul Getty Trust to reflect its broader scope, with the museum becoming an operating program of the Trust.
    Due to expanded operations and limited space at the original J. Paul Getty Museum in Pacific Palisades, the various programs of the J. Paul Getty Trust were located at different sites throughout the Los Angeles basin during the 1980s and early 1990s. The Trust's vision was to bring together most of their programs at a single site. A roughly 750-acre property in Brentwood (west Los Angeles) was purchased by the Trust in 1983 and the following year Richard Meier & Partners was chosen to design the Getty Center, which now houses the Trust, its programs, and additional space for the Museum.

    Administrative Information

    Access Restrictions

    The final edit of Art Works is open to the public and available online at http://hdl.handle.net/10020/1998ia01final 
    Accession 1998.IA.01 is open to qualified researchers with the following exceptions. The original camera rolls, film negatives, and master tapes are restricted for preservation purposes. Raw footage and interim edits are only available where viewing tapes (VHS) already exist. With the exception of materials that have been marked restricted or confidential and digital files that have not yet been processed, the production records described in Series III are available for use.
    The following types of records are permanently closed: records containing personal information, records that compromise security or operations, legal communications, legal work product, and records related to donors. The J. Paul Getty Trust reserves the right to restrict access to any records held by the Institutional Archives.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright 1997 J. Paul Getty Trust. Contact Library Rights and Reproductions  at the Getty Research Institute for copyright information and permission to publish.

    Preferred Citation

    [Cite the item and series (as appropriate)], Art Works: Behind the Scenes at the Getty production materials, J. Paul Getty Trust. The Getty Research Institute (IA40013).

    Acquisition note

    The original accession 1998.IA.01 consisted entirely of audiovisual material (film and video) and was roughly 48 linear feet. In 2011 some of the materials from accession 1998.IA.08 was merged with accession 1998.IA.01 to reunite materials that clearly belonged together. Accession 1998.IA.08 was originally about 15 linear feet and contained all the documentation as well as audiovisual material created by the production company Two Headed Monster, Inc. All materials were originally transferred to Wim de Wit in Special Collections in 1998 by Evangeline "Vangie" Griego. Materials were transferred from Special Collections to the Institutional Archives once the Archives was established.

    Processing note

    This inventory was created by Simon Yu and Cyndi Shein in 2012. Material has been rehoused if endangered; very minimal processing has been performed. The description in this inventory was derived from film canisters/boxes, audiovisual tape labels, and inventories provided by the production companies. The presence of dates, running times, and film content is inconsistent; all known information has been included herein.
    The computer disks described in Series III have been ingested but not transformed or processed.

    Appraisal note

    Two boxes of test shots were discarded because they were labeled "of no use to future work" by the creators. The tests were shot to check exposures and adjust camera and lens functions.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The records date from 1995-1998 and primarily comprise audiovisual and production materials generated by the Getty film project Art Works: Behind the Scenes at the Getty, a J. Paul Getty Trust film that was completed in 1997. Materials include negatives (35mm film reels), various formats of audio and video tapes, contracts, daily logs, storyboards, and other printed and electronic documentation on the project. Art Works is a 28-minute promotional film created to highlight the activities of the five programs of the Trust that were active during the time leading up to the opening of the Getty Center in 1997: Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Grant Program, Getty Information Institute, Getty Education Institute, and Museum. The film also spotlights the newly-opened Getty Center facility. The working title of the film was "Getty Film Project."
    Excerpts of some of the interviews with Getty employees and select footage of the Getty facilities may also have been used to produce a video on the "Getty Center Opening."
    Art Works production information: Director: Paul Hopkins; executive producer: Harold M. Williams; produced by Gwen Walden; supervising producer: Evangeline E. Griego; producer: Craig Potter; editor: Christopher Willoughby; co-executive producer: Susan Morris; creative consultant: Brett Wickens, Frankfurt Balkind Partners; production company: OneSuch Films, Inc.; editing/design/post-production: Two Headed Monster, Inc.; copyright 1997 The J. Paul Getty Trust.

    Indexing Terms

    Subjects - Corporate Bodies

    Getty Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)
    Getty Conservation Institute
    Getty Education Institute for the Arts
    Getty Grant Program
    Getty Information Institute
    J. Paul Getty Museum

    Subjects - Topics

    Art in education--United States--20th century
    Cultural property--Conservation and restoration
    Documentary films--Production and direction

    Subjects - Places

    Bonampak Site (Mexico)
    Dunhuang (China)--Antiquities--Conservation and restoration
    Hunza (Pakistan)--Historic buildings--Conservation and restoration
    Karakoram Highway (China and Pakistan)

    Genres and Forms of Material

    Sound recordings--20th century
    Video recordings--20th century