Getty Research Institute Scholars Program images and recordings, 1985-2013

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Summary

Creators:
Getty Research Institute. Scholars Program
Abstract:
The collection consists of digitized and analog audio recordings, video recordings, and photographs of the people and events related to the Scholars Program at the Getty Research Institute. The materials date 1985-2013 and include recordings and photographs of lectures, panel discussions, conferences, and other events hosted by the Getty Research Institute and given by Getty Scholars, staff, and invited speakers. The collection also includes portraits of the program scholars and photo releases signed by scholars.
Extent:
59 Linear Feet (67 boxes) and 1741.37 GB (944 files)
Language:
Collection material is in English

Background

Scope and content:

The collection comprises audio recordings, video recordings, and photographs of the people and events related to the Getty Research Institute Scholars Program and its predecessors, dating from 1985 to 2013.

The audiovisual recordings primarily comprise audiocassette and compact disc recordings of lectures, panel discussions, conferences, and other events hosted by the Getty Research Institute and given by Getty Scholars, staff, and invited speakers, dating from 1987 to 2001. Many of the recordings have been digitized. The lectures and events hosted by the Scholars Program tend to focus on the given theme for that particular scholar year. Other symposia and conferences represented in this collection cover various topics, and, although held at a Getty facility and attended by Getty Scholars, may not have been hosted by the Scholars Program. Also included are video tapes of a symposium on Florentine patronage (1986-1987) and a viewing schedule covering the research theme of the Getty Scholars Program for the 1986/1987 year: "Seventeenth Century Dutch Art and Society/Patronage."

The images principally comprise portraits of scholars from 1985 to 2007, contact sheets, negatives, and oversize photograph prints (8"x10" and 11"x14"). The photographs were primarily used to select official scholar portraits, but they also document to a lesser extent the outings, events, and lectures that Getty Scholars attended.

The collection also includes restricted photo releases signed by scholars from 1997 to 2013.

Arrangement

The materials are arranged into four series. Please note that Series III and IV are available for staff use only. Series I. ;Audio recordings, 1987-2001

Series II. ;Video recordings, 1986-1987

Series III. Photographs, 1985-2007 (restricted) and

Series IV. Photo Releases, 1997-2013 (restricted).

Biographical / historical:

The Getty Research Institute (GRI) is a program developed and overseen by the J. Paul Getty Trust, an international cultural and philanthropic organization serving both general audiences and specialized professionals. The Trust is a not-for-profit institution, educational in purpose and character that focuses on the visual arts in all of their dimensions. The Trust currently supports and oversees four programs: the J. Paul Getty Museum; the Getty Foundation; the Getty Conservation Institute; and the Getty Research Institute (GRI).

Located at the Getty Center in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, the GRI creates and disseminates new knowledge through its expertise, its active collecting program, public programs, institutional collaborations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and residential scholars program. The GRI also provides intellectual leadership through its research projects and its innovative digital reference tools. The GRI's Research Library, consisting of over one million books, periodicals, study photographs, auction catalogs and special collections of rare and unique materials, serve an international community of scholars and the interested public. The activities and scholarly resources of the GRI guide and sustain each other and, together, provide a unique environment for research, critical inquiry, and debate. 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, California, the museum moved to the newly constructed Getty Villa on 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.

The establishment of an arts library had already been proposed as early as 1977 by then Museum Director Stephen Garrett, when in February 1982, Trust President Harold Williams' chief deputy Nancy Englander outlined a proposed "Center for Advanced Study." This proposed center would include a residence program for scholars, a major expansion of the library, a limited publications program, and an art photo archive. The center would focus on the preservation of historic art history materials and the development of new art history reference tools using state-of-the-art information technology. The plan was approved and the Getty Center for the History of the Arts and the Humanities (GCHAH) opened in temporary quarters in the First Federal Building at 401 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica, in July 1983. In 1996, in order to avoid confusion with the soon-to-open Getty Center in Brentwood, the GCHAH was renamed the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities. In 2000, the program's name was shortened to the GRI.

Noted architectural historian Kurt Forster began work as the first director of the GCHAH in the fall of 1984. One of the original departments in the GCHAH was the Visiting Scholars and Conferences department, headed by Herb Hymans, and it was this department that inaugurated the Scholars Program in the fall of 1985, inviting 17 scholars and fellows to explore the theme "Aesthetic Experience and Affinities Among the Arts." Since that first year, the number of scholars has fluctuated between 20 and 30, but the treatment and consideration of a specific theme has remained a constant.

In addition to hosting the Scholars Program, the Visiting Scholars and Conferences department was also responsible for organizing scholarly activities, events, and conferences. The department went through several name changes and restructuring in the years that followed. In the mid-1990s, it was renamed the Scholars and Seminars Program and later renamed the Scholars and Conferences Department. In 1998, its activities were encompassed in the new Department of Research and Education, which included the development of new art historical scholarship and to consolidate programming activities. As a result of the GRI reorganization in 2009, the department was split into two: a new department, Research Projects and Programs, and the Scholars Program dedicated to scholar activities. As of 2009, the Scholars Program reports directly to the Director of the GRI.

Acquisition information:
The records in this finding aid originated from the following accessions: 1987.IA.26, 1994.IA.02, 1995.IA.02, 1996.IA.02, 1997.IA.01, 2006.IA.24, 2009.IA.41, and 2019.IA.31.
Physical location:
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.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
Website