Jessie Hendricks calls herself a “science-y, math person” and admits that she doesn’t always “get” art.
But she’s on a mission to figure out what she’s been missing.
That’s one of the main themes of Getty’s new online video series Becoming Artsy. Host Hendricks investigates a different topic in each 10-minute episode, exploring art and Getty from her perspective as a science writer and producer who’s curious to learn what it is that makes art so meaningful. That journey has been more emotional than she expected as she set out to reach viewers who may have found themselves puzzled by the art world.
“I wanted to learn from people who do appreciate art, how do you do it? What do you get? What are you seeing? What are you looking at?” Hendricks said. “I'm learning new ways to see art, and I want to be able to share those techniques with other people.”
From Scientist-Actor to Art Show Host
Before joining Getty, Hendricks gravitated towards two loves: performing arts and science. She moved to Seattle after college to complete an internship at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and later worked as a laboratory manager for a biotech company. But her love of performing never went away—she began producing science videos, while participating in community theater and TV hosting on the side.
After six years in Seattle, she decided it was time to start pursuing her passion for entertainment in earnest, so she moved to Los Angeles. Hendricks’s career became a mosaic of her varied interests: she landed a few TV roles, wrote articles for science publications, interned at NOVA on PBS, and got a master’s degree in science writing at MIT. She also created her own YouTube channel, called Everyday Science, featuring videos in which she explained scientific topics and created science-themed parodies of popular songs (*NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye became ‘Pi Pi Pi,’ to name just one).
When a friend referred Hendricks to a job at Getty to produce and host a brand-new web series, she felt like the position was tailor-made for her. Although she had little formal education in art, she knew her experience hosting and breaking down complex concepts and her “ever-curious” personality would transfer to this new subject matter.
“Art and science are both expressions of how we see the world, and our desire to communicate that or figure out the world around us,” Hendricks said.
Bringing Becoming Artsy to Life
At first, Hendricks and Christopher Sprinkle, lead creative producer at Getty, approached Becoming Artsy as a traditional educational series that would show Hendricks investigating art-related topics, interviewing Getty experts, and presenting the information—much like she was accustomed to doing in her science videos. But they soon realized the show was missing something: Hendricks herself.
So they shifted the series from simply showing Getty and the art world, to featuring Hendricks as a “character” in a larger story that explores her often-emotional journey toward discovering the meaning behind the art.
Jessie Hendricks and Christopher Sprinkle editing an episode of Becoming Artsy
Photo: Erin Migdol
“When I started figuring out why art means so much to people, I was really affected by that. It was overwhelming,” Hendricks said. “And Christopher saw that emotional stuff happening, and he said, ‘This is the stuff we need to see.’”
Episodes in the first season include an introduction to the Getty Center, an investigation into the question, “What is a museum?” and an exploration of how to “experience” art when you come across it. Future episodes will explore topics like the Getty gardens and decorative arts.
But the first episode, an introduction to the Getty Villa, ignited Hendricks’s first epiphany about how meaningful (and relevant) art can be to people today. After Getty antiquities curator Kenneth Lapatin explained that Roman emperor Hadrian often brought “places of memory” (what we might call souvenirs today) home from his travels, she realized she had done the same thing: she had recently redecorated her living room to match the Santa Monica hotel her dad stayed at during his latest visit, to help her memories from the visit live on.
“I realized that J. Paul Getty did that with the Villa—he literally saw a Roman villa, thought, ‘I want to build this here in Malibu,’ and created this incredible place. And I saw the human connection between people thousands of years ago, to Getty, to me buying pillows because I cherished that moment when my dad was in town,” Hendricks said. “The connection between us struck me so hard. I didn't think I was really connected to the art world in that way. And then I realized, ‘Oh no, these people are just humans.’”
To viewers who also feel like they sometimes don’t “get” art, Hendricks said she’d reassure them that she doesn’t always get it either—but clearly, there are a lot of people (particularly at Getty!) who do. Becoming Artsy aims to reveal the meaningful connections even the most casual art enthusiast can make between themselves and the art.
“This journey, it feels very personal for me. It’s not just like I go to work and go home and it’s over,” Hendricks said. “I'm changing as a person.”
