Getty Education Institute grant files, 1984-2001

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Summary

Title:

Getty Education Institute grant files

Dates:

1984-2001

Creators:

Getty Education Institute for the Arts

Abstract:

The records, created and/or maintained by Program Officer Vicki Rosenberg, concern the grantmaking activities of the Getty Education Institute for the Arts (GEI) from the mid-1980s until 2001. Rosenberg's files thoroughly cover the full range of GEI grant making activites, including detailed files on District, Regional Institute, and Special Initiative grants. Other GEI initiatives are briefly touched upon in her general adminstrative records. Records are comprised of correspondence, grant proposals, review material, reports, and evaluation materials.

Extent:

100.5 Linear Feet (101 boxes)

Language:

Collection material is in English

Preferred citation:

[Cite the item and series (as appropriate)], Grant files, 1984-2001, Getty Eduction Institute for the Arts. Institutional Archives, Getty Research Institute, Finding aid no. IA10021.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifaia10021

Background

Scope and content:

The records primarily consist of correspondence, memoranda, grant proposals, review material, reports, statistics, evaluation materials, and printed materials regarding the grant-making and related administrative activities of the Getty Education Institute for the Arts (GEI) from the mid-1980s until 2001. The majority of the records concern the three major prongs of the GEI's grant-making initiatives, District grants, Regional Institute grants, and Special Initiative grants, all of which are thoroughly documented, including the assessment and evaluation aspects of the various projects. A separate set of files include documentation of general administration and chronological correspondence regarding both the GEI's grant initiatives and other GEI initiatives and programs. These materials include records on advisory committee meetings, budget files, conference planning, and Michigan office administration.

The records were created and maintained by Vicki Rosenberg, staff member of the Getty Education Institute, who managed GEI grant funding activities, largely out of an office in Michigan, and reported to GEI Program Director Lani Duke. Upon the dissolution of the GEI, Rosenberg stayed with the grant projects under the loose and general oversight of the Getty Grant Program until the grants expired. Please note that Rosenberg was also heavily involved in the GEI's Children's Television Programing initiative; see the section below on related materials for access to these records.

Organization

Records are organized into four series:

I. District grants, 1984-1992

II. Regional Institute grants, 1996-2001

III. Special Initiative grants, 1986-1998

IV. Vicki Rosenberg's administative records, 1984-2001 (closed to the public for 35 years)

Biographical / historical:

In May of 1981, with the anticipated settlement of J. Paul Getty's estate and the disbursement of funds, the J. Paul Getty Trust began intensive exploration to determine how the resources might be best used by the organization in support of the arts world. A year later, the trustees approved a number of recommendations, among which was the creation of a center for developing programs directed at improving the quality and status of arts education. Formally founded in 1982, this center became known as the Getty's Center for Education in the Arts, later known as the Getty Education Institute (GEI) [the abbreviation GEI will be used througout, regardless of the name of the program at the time]. Choosing to focus on the visual arts, the GEI centered it's work around a "discipline-based" approach to art education (DBAE), which had been advocated for by a few art educators for a number of years.

The goal of DBAE was to develop students' abilities to understand and appreciate art. This involved a knowledge of the theories and contexts of art and abilities to respond to as well as to create art. Art was to be taught as an essential component of general education and as a foundation for specialized art study. Content for instruction was derived primarily from the disciplines of aesthetics, art criticism, art history, and art production, disciplines dealing with: (1) conceptions of the nature of art, (2) bases for valuing and judging art, (3) contexts in which art has been created, and (4) processes and techniques for creating art. Content for study was derived from a broad range of the visual arts, including folk, applied, and fine arts from Western and non-Western cultures and from ancient to contemporary times.

Three strategies intended to guide the GEI's programming decisions and assessments. Specifically, the three were: 1) leadership, the GEI needed to create and maintain acceptance of its convictions that arts education was necessary and should be taught in a substantial manner, behaving entrepeneurially when possible and needed; 2) collaboration, the GEI was a new player in arts education and it needed to work with many existing arts stakeholders, some of whom could carry the message with more credibility and to greater number of policy makers; and 3) leveraging, the GEI did not have the resources to effect this change alone, therefore other organizations had to be encouraged to invest their own financial and staff resources.

These emphases resulted in the GEI's decision to focus its efforts into five main program areas: advocacy of the value of arts education, professional development for school and university personnel, theory development to encourage evolution of DBAE, curriculum development to create model instructional materials, and special initiatives to encourage others to adopt DBAE. The program areas then developed a number of specific projects and services, for example the establishment of the Getty Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts (with in-service and district-wide implementation components), DBAE concept development, a pre-service education assessment, a curriculum assessment project, a children's television project, and museum education projects. As these projects were evolving, the GEI also took on responsibility for administering arts education grants from the Getty Grant Program in 1986, with the goal of supporting the development of DBAE programs across the country.

The grant funding activities for school districts, regional consortia, and special initiatives became a substantive part of the GEI's programming from 1986 until 1998. Keeping its three strategies at the core of its grant program, the GEI used the initatives to sponsor actual DBAE curriculum implementation in schools, to support staff development, and to improve the quality and status of arts education.

The grants operated under the oversight of the GEI until 1998, when the Getty Trust made the decision to dissolve the GEI. Since a number of the grants had terms that ran until the end of fiscal year 2001, the final years of some grants were seen to completion under the general oversight of the Getty Grant Program.

Acquisition information:

Accession 2007.IA.16 was taked as a part of the Legacy Records Appraisal Project during the review of most J. Paul Getty Records entered into storage through 1997.

Accession 2009.IA.38 was taken as part of the Legacy Records Appraisal Project, boxes were discovered in Legacy records appraisal of Communications boxes.

Accession 2010.IA.21 was taken as part of the Legacy Records Appraisal Project, the boxes were found in Foundation records.

Processing information:

A box-list of the materials was created by Kyle Morgan in 2008. Nancy Enneking provided rough arrangement and description in October 2010.

To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to roughly delineate series, to create accurate content lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types. No other work has been performed on the materials.

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

Indexed terms

Subjects:: Art in education -- United States -- 20th century
Art -- Study and teaching
Arts -- Education, Elementary
Arts -- Study and teaching -- United States
Proposals
Reports
Correspondence
Minutes
Administrative records

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:: Nancy Enneking
Date Encoded:: This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2021-04-11 23:40:20 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

The records in accession 2007.IA.16, subject to review for permanently closed information, are open to qualified researchers. Requests for access will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

The records in accession 2009.IA.38, subject to review for permanently closed information, are open to qualified researchers. Requests for access will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

The records in accession 2010.IA.21, subject to review for permanently closed information, are open to qualified researchers. Requests for access will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

The administrative records described in series 4 are closed to the public for 35 years and are subject to review upon opening.

The following 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.

Terms of access:

Contact Library Rights and Reproductions.