Early Birds Flock to the Getty

They not only gained admittance before the Getty Center officially opened, but they also took its first public site tour.

Planning and persistence paid off for supporters of the Art Institute of Southern California in Laguna Beach on Tuesday when they attended opening day at the $1-billion center in Brentwood.

Arriving by chartered bus two hours before the center opened to the public, the group toured the grounds and galleries as last-minute touches were being made.

“We’re experiencing it as it is awakening,” said institute president Alan Barkley.

Ready and willing: “Are you ready for the Getty?” tour organizer Fay Bowman asked participants as they boarded the bus at 7:30 a.m. Most of the tour-goers were members of Designing Women, a group that raises funds on behalf of the nonprofit institute.

It was Bowman who dreamed up the trip. “I wanted to do something for the group that would be just for fun,” she said. “Something that had nothing to do with having to do it.”

Beginning six months ago, Bowman called the center repeatedly, explaining to staff members that she hoped to bring a group of art lovers to the facility on opening day. “Every time I called, I talked to someone different,” with no results, she said. “Then, finally, I reached a woman who said she needed to fill some spots they’d been saving. Someone who planned to come couldn’t come. That meant we could. They gave us an early arrival time, and we ended up taking the first public site tour.”

Annually, members of Designing Women sponsor “Color It Orange,” a countywide art competition and exhibition for schoolchildren. They also stage a yearly benefit to help the institute pay operations costs. “The women spend six months of the year planning the competition and six months planning a benefit,” said Bowman, an artist.

Opening remarks: The eager group briskly explored the hilltop site, drinking in its ocean and mountain views, as members made their way between the center’s multi-pavilioned art museum, research institute and Central Garden.

The land on which the Getty stands was supposedly “The Unbuildable Lot,” a docent explained to the group, “because there’s a fault line here.”

Early in construction, some metal structures were damaged by a quake, she said. “So, they reinforced it. Now, they say, ‘God forbid there be an earthquake, we should be here because it’s so well reinforced.’ ”

For Barkley, the center’s highlight was the Central Garden designed by artist Robert Irwin. “He took a lot of the geometry of the buildings and brought them down to a human scale you can interact with,” Barkley said. “The garden will be a destination for people more than any other of the exhibits, because they can keep coming back to it, watching it grow and change.”

Quote: “We’ve only scratched the surface [of the Getty],” said Barkley, after the tour. “We need to go back many times. For most people, the average visit to a painting is 20 seconds. People need to pick out a work, or a room, and spend an hour--enjoying it.”

Guest list: Jan Massimino, board chairman of the institute; Verna Degenhardt; Veronica Khristov; Juin Foresman; Jane Grier; Doretta and Jim Ensign; Elizabeth Bragg; Linda Barkley; Sharon Lambe; and Bob and Beverly White. Also attending were Luciana and Donald Marabella, Kent and Nancy Snyder, Jack and Pam Smart, Doris and Gary Rasmussen, Nancy Lawrence, Constance Morthland, Darlene Ware, Joy Taylor, Jan Ward, Charles and Sylvia McGregor, Olga Matthews, JoAnn Killingsworth and Patty Truman.