In addition to the MLI, GLI offers other professional development programs, convenes meetings involving non-profit agencies, and hosts an online forum. The GLI began in 1979 with a headquarters in New York City and classes taught at the University of California Berkeley. From 1999 to 2009, the program was headquartered at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California. In 2004, classes moved from Berkeley to the Getty Center. In 2010, the GLI affiliated with Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California and was renamed The Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University. After the transfer, the foundation supports the GLI with a three-year, $2.2 million grant, but the program is headquartered on the Claremont campus. Claremont is paying for GLI's indirect costs. Although the transfer took effect on January 2, 2010, the 2010 MLI was held at the Getty Center. The 2011 MLI will be held on the Claremont campus.
The Foundation's senior staff includes:
Deborah Marrow, who was Foundation Director, now serves as interim president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust.
During the period July 2006 - June 2007, the Foundation had approximately 30 full-time and part-time employees, and a budget of $27.8 million.
The Getty Foundation should not be confused with the "Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation," which is based in San Francisco, California, and which awards grants largely "to promote the fields of music, the opera, and the symphony".
Getty Conservation Institute
The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), in Los Angeles, California, is a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It is headquartered at the Getty Center but also has facilities at the Getty Villa. It commenced operation in 1985. The GCI is a private international research institution dedicated to advancing conservation practice through the creation and delivery of knowledge. It "serves the conservation community through scientific research, education and training, model field projects, and the dissemination of the results of both its own work and the work of others in the field" and "adheres to the principles that guide the work of the Getty Trust: service, philanthropy, teaching, and access." GCI works in both art conservation and architectural conservation.
GCI conducts scientific research related to art conservation. It offers formal education and training programs. GCI published a number of scholarly books. GCI pays for field projects around the world to preserve cultural heritage.
GCI scientists study the decay of objects and buildings, and how to prevent or stop such decay. One of many projects in this area involved the effect of outdoor and indoor air pollutants on museum collections. Another project analyzed the cause of deterioration of the sandstone in the original National Capitol Columns now at the United States National Arboretum.
In addition, GCI "conducts scientific research on materials' composition." For example, a project on the conservation of photographs has as one of its objectives the creation of an "Atlas of Analytical Signatures of Photographic Processes" which will provide "a precise chemical fingerprint of all the 150 or so ways pictures have been developed." As a part of that project, Getty scientists once examined the world's first photograph from nature by Nicéphore Niépce. Using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and other techniques during the 2002-2003 project, they found (for example) that bitumen of Judea was present in the image.
Training of conservation works is an important part of GCI's work. For example, GCI collaborated with other organizations to create a course "to assist museum personnel in safeguarding their collections from the effects of natural and human-made emergencies." Also, GCI developed a course on the "Fundamentals of the Conservation of Photographs" which is now taught in eastern Europe by the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and the Slovak National Library. Besides courses and workshops, GCI has also been involved with long-term education programs, such as establishing a Master's degree program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles.
GCI workers travel to other places to protect items important to history (field projects).
GCI's field projects are "selected based on how they fit the institute's goals of raising public awareness, contributing new, broadly applicable information to the field, and supporting cultural heritage" and "must be executed in collaboration with partners… who must be serious about their efforts… so that projects are assured of continuing after the Getty's involvement ceases." Among other completed GCI field projects were efforts to preserve the Mogao Caves and Yungang Grottoes in China (announced in 1989); to restore prehistoric rock paintings of Sierra de San Francisco in Baja California Sur (1994); and to protect ancient buildings and archaeological sites in Iraq following the start of the Iraq war (2004).
It has been stated that "perhaps the institute's most profound contribution to conservation is the dissemination of information and methods learned in the field." GCI spreads information in conferences; lectures; books; and online publications, newsletters, video, and audio.
The following are selected books published by GCI:
Here is a selection of courses by GCI:
Since GCI was established, it has had three directors. Besides the director, the GCI senior staff includes:
In 2009, GCI had a $33 million budget. This is less than the $41 million budget for 2008.
In addition to the work of the GCI, the J. Paul Getty Trust contributes to the conservation field through the J. Paul Getty Museum conservation departments, the conservation collection in the library at the Getty Research Institute, and conservation grants provided by the Getty Foundation.
Getty Research Institute
The Getty Research Institute (GRI), at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". It is a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. GRI maintains a research library, organizes exhibitions and other events, sponsors a residential scholars program, publishes books, and produces electronic databases.
The GRI was originally called the "Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities", and was first discussed in 1983. Located in Santa Monica, its first director (beginning in 1985) was Kurt W. Forster. GRI's library had 30,000 volumes in 1983, but grew to 450,000 volumes by 1986.
In a statement upon his departure in 1992, Forster summarized his tenure as "Beginning with the rudiments of a small museum library... the center grew... to become one of the nation's preeminent research centers for arts and culture...". In 1994, Salvatore Settis, a professor of the history of classical art and archeology in Italy, became the director of the Center. By 1996, the Center's name had been changed to "Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities", and by 1999 it was known simply as "Getty Research Institute".
One GRI's special projects was "L.A. as Subject: The Transformative Culture of Los Angeles Communities" conducted between 1995 and 1999, whose purposes included "enhanc[ing] existing resources and develop new resources that support new research scholarship on LA and also encourag[ing] the preservation, conservation, and display of local material culture". GRI worked with other local organizations to publish "Cultural Inheritance/L.A.: A Resource Directory of Less Visible Archives and Collections in the Los Angeles Region" in 1999. In 2000, the "L.A. as Subject" project was transferred to the University of Southern California. That school continues to update and expand an online version of the resource directory.