Crowded Schedule, Crowded Halls

Dec. 13-16, 1997 - Official opening days for Getty Center.

Dec. 23 - Visitors walking to the Getty Center cause parking congestion, prompting neighbors to complain about cars on residential streets. The L.A. City Council responds by imposing a two-hour temporary parking limit.

Dec. 26-27 - One-day attendance peaks at more than 10,000 each day.

Jan. 6, 1998 - Barry Munitz assumes his post as president and chief executive officer of the J. Paul Getty Trust, succeeding Harold Williams.

Jan. 29 - Assn. of Art Museum Directors, a 170-member group of cultural leaders from the United States and Canada, convenes at the Getty Center.

Feb. 3 - L.A. City Council agrees to extend nearby street parking restrictions for a year in an effort to appease the Getty’s Brentwood neighbors. Residents remain concerned that museum officials have not provided sufficient space to accommodate increased parking demands.

Feb. 10 - Getty Conservation and Information Institutes present “Time and Bits: Managing Digital Continuity,” a conference on the problems of preserving cultural information in digital form and possible solutions.

Feb. 28 - Getty sponsors its first Family Festival, a program designed to draw families from nontraditional museum groups.

March - As daily crowds average 5,000 to 8,000, the center’s shortage of restrooms and drinking fountains becomes apparent. Getty officials look for ways to solve the problem by adding facilities.

March 21 - One of many high profile guests over the course of the first year, Vice President Al Gore visits the Getty Center.

March 25-27 - Getty Conservation Institute presents “Mortality Immortality? The Legacy of 20th-Century Art,” a multidisciplinary conference examining problems of preserving contemporary art.

May - Getty Conservation Institute awards $1 million for the restoration of the revolutionary Marxist mural “America Tropical,” created by Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros in 1932 on historic Olvera Street. It will be matched by $1 million from taxpayers through the city’s El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument Authority.

May 14 - Leilani Lattin Duke, director of the Getty Education Institute since its inception in 1983, announces her resignation, effective June 30.

July 27 - John Walsh, director of the Getty Museum, adds vice president of the Getty Trust to his title. Deborah Gribbon, the museum’s chief curator, is promoted to deputy director.

Aug. 7 - Getty Grant Program announces that the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the University of California will be awarded a total of $600,000 to plan and research exhibitions in the first round of a new category of Senior Research Grants.

Aug. 24 - Eleanor E. Fink, director of the Getty Information Institute, announces her resignation as the institute--set up to improve the technology of art historical research--is phased out and its activities are moved to other branches of the trust.

Sept. 11 - Getty Museum begins hosting local school groups, in a program that brings 450 students and teachers to the museum each weekday morning.

Fall - Several changes are implemented at the center as the result of internal reviews ordered by CEO Munitz. The Education Institute, which promotes art education in schools, is under scrutiny and the Research Institute is reorganized.

Nov. 9 - Munitz is named to head the transition team for Gov.-elect Gray Davis. Munitz does not suspend any of his Getty duties while serving Davis.

Nov. 12 - The Getty Museum announces its first major acquisition since opening in Brentwood, “Sunrise,” a seminal French Impressionist painting by Claude Monet, purchased privately at an undisclosed price.

Nov. 30 - Miguel Angel Corzo, director of the Getty Conservation Institute, resigns, becoming the third top official to depart since Munitz’s arrival.

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Compiled by JACQUELYN CENACVEIRA and SUZANNE MUCHNIC