The Getty and Community Each Must Reach Out

The $1-billion Getty Center is a cultural landmark without parallel in 20th century America, a unique complex of art, architecture and scholarship. Completion is a civic feat that honors those who made it possible, and its opening on Tuesday should be a source of great pride in Los Angeles.

Awaiting visitors at the site atop a Brentwood promontory are six clustered structures covered with craggy travertine evoking ancient Rome. The buildings are tied together with modernistic panels in white aluminum, a successful marriage of old and new, classical and contemporary, by architect Richard Meier.

Now the construction is complete, and the duty falls to the center’s directors to meet a similar challenge of combining the Getty’s classical and contemporary roles.

When oil magnate J. Paul Getty opened his original museum in Malibu in 1974, some critics dismissed it as more ostentatious monument (a replica of the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum) than serious museum. As Getty President Harold M. Williams says, “We had no credibility.”

Now, after two decades of ambitious acquisitions (which totaled $110 million last year alone), no one can deny that the Getty’s collections of Greek and Roman antiquities, French furniture and decorative arts, Renaissance and Baroque sculptures, and photography are among the best in the world.

The challenge now for the Getty is to develop an integral role for itself in the region. The Getty Trust already has been more active in Los Angeles than many realize, doling out millions of dollars in the last five years to fund paid summer internships in regional museums, professional training in the arts for public school teachers and “homework centers” in regional libraries where students can use computers and audiovisual equipment.

Nevertheless, it’s true that the Getty has yet to define a strategic vision beyond its role as a traditional museum. The responsibility falls not only on the Getty and its officials to reach out to communities rarely touched by classical art but upon all of us to see, use and treasure this magnificent cultural resource.

Much of the responsibility will lie with Cal State University Chancellor Barry Munitz when he takes over as president next month upon Williams’ retirement. Munitz has the academic credentials, political moxie and powerful personality necessary to mine the Getty’s prospects as a cultural center. The skills he employed in building coalitions among fractious groups at Cal State should help him here in forging partnerships with schools, civic agencies and cultural institutions not used to talking with one another.

Perhaps most important is Munitz’s professed commitment to using the Getty for community outreach. To counter criticism that it is a remote “city on a hill,” Munitz could begin by expanding existing Getty programs that attempt to foster community by illuminating our common regional history.

For instance, the Getty should be a partner in helping Los Angeles rebuild programs of excellence in its public schools. Southern California is already a world hub for the arts. Educational programs could provide the expertise and even some of the classroom budget necessary to prepare students for Los Angeles’ unique pool of artistic occupations, from architecture and fashion to cinematography and design.

The Getty is the shining star, but a constellation of other cultural centers give life to the arts in our communities as well, and together they can enrich us. From Orange County’s Performing Arts Center to San Marino’s Huntington Library and Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum. From the Music Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles to the Hollywood Bowl and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the mid-Wilshire area, the Southern California cultural domain keeps expanding.

The Getty Center stands high in the center of this cultural plain, a unique and sensational addition.