The Getty’s Latest Treasure

Construction of the Getty Center--the massive $1-billion complex above Brentwood--is down to the finishing touches, with the official opening scheduled for late December. But an even bigger building process lies ahead: a concrete plan for spending the J. Paul Getty Trust’s whopping $4.2-billion endowment to meet its aim of becoming a public advocate for the arts, humanities and education in the United States and beyond.

The governing board of the Getty has put that grand but still unspecified responsibility in the able hands of Barry Munitz. Currently chancellor of the California State University system, Munitz will become president and chief executive of the Getty Trust next January, replacing Harold M. Williams, who last summer announced his intention to retire.

In his six years at Cal State, Munitz helped make the 337,000-student system a model of state public education. While the University of California’s Board of Regents became increasingly hobbled by fractious debate, Munitz and Cal State’s governing board won national recognition for responding swiftly to the state’s economic, social and educational needs. The Cal State board, which will begin its search for a new chancellor at an Aug. 4 meeting, will be hard-pressed to find someone who shares Munitz’s dual skills at educational excellence and community outreach.

Cal State’s loss is a gain for the Getty and Los Angeles. In someone else’s hands, the Getty could become merely an arts palace, august but removed from its surrounding community. Munitz’s style, in contrast, is extroverted and socially involved, and the Getty is bound to take on those characteristics. As Munitz told The Times, “The first challenge is to Los Angeles. Here’s this billion-dollar facility going up high on the hill: How are we going to reach out and connect?”

Six opulent buildings spread over 110 acres, the Getty is indeed a lofty edifice. And now that the physical structure is in place, the vision has to follow. To hear him talk, Munitz seems up to the challenge:

“This is a world that’s disintegrating and fragile and uncivil and for 5,000 years some of the very few adhesives available have been culture, art and education. Our goal must be to make the Getty the single most influential force for the value of arts and humanities and education as a healing force.”