Late last week, the Getty Foundation announced a new pilot program for emerging art professionals from historically underrepresented groups, funding two-year positions at 10 art institutions in Los Angeles. The Getty Marrow Emerging Professionals pilot program—named after Deborah Marrow, former director of the Getty Foundation who led the organization’s undergraduate internship initiative—is an expansion of internships open only to alumni of the program.
Some of the new Getty-funded positions include a repatriation assistant at the Autry Museum of the American West, who will gain expertise in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and how it is implemented at the museum; exhibit coordinator at the Skirball Cultural Center, who will manage four to nine occasional exhibits at the Jewish Education Center; and an assistant educator at the Hammer Museum, who will become a gallery educator and lead tours. The Getty itself will host two positions—one at the Getty Museum and the other at the Getty Research Institute. Other participating institutions are the Film Academy Museum; Armory Center for the Arts; Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; ONE Archives at USC Libraries; and Self Help Graphics & Art.
Heber Rodriguez, Getty Marrow Internship Alumni and Exhibition Program Production Manager at the Armory Center for the Arts, emphasized in a statement that “active mentorship and ongoing professional development are important elements of the Lift Support Model as we climb for the next generation of artists.”
The pilot program is the implementation of a promise the Getty Foundation made in 2020 to evaluate the success of its internship program. “The Getty will continue the Getty Marrow internship program, test and introduce new professional development opportunities, and focus on early career interventions for alumni,” the report said.
This report also highlighted continuing disparities in the arts sector, finding that in Los Angeles County, 59% of those working in the arts identified as white, even though whites make up only 26% of the population.
“We invest in emerging professionals who want to pursue careers in the arts, and we support institutions with a strong commitment to diversifying their staff,” Getty Foundation director Joan Weinstein said in a statement. “Coordinated efforts like this are necessary if we are to bring new voices and perspectives to our cultural institutions.”
The host organizations will begin recruiting this summer and hire employees to their roles through January 2023. A list of posted positions is available on the Getty website.
Jasmine Liu is a writer for Hyperallergic. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she studied anthropology and mathematics at Stanford University. Find her
