WEEKLY STAFF NEWS | 4.6.2020
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
If a Staff Member Is Ill
If you have symptoms or test positive for COVID-19, we ask that you notify Nancy Gibson at ngibson@getty.edu and Cathy Pericone at cpericone@getty.edu. If you were on site within 14 days of exhibiting symptoms or a positive test result, Getty will work to determine with whom you were in contact and notify those individuals. If you are working at home, the longer you have been away from coworkers the lower the risk of exposure. We are committed to the privacy of all individuals and will act in compliance with all the laws regarding confidentiality and with compassion for the individual, but in order to protect everyone’s health, we ask that you keep us informed if you become sick or test positive, even if you believe exposure to other employees to be limited or non-existent. Stay well!
Staying Safer and Healthier at Home
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers these tips for keeping your home safe from COVID-19. The City of LA is also recommending people wear simple non-N95 masks when they go shopping. The LA Times provides some tutorials on making your own simple masks.
Virtual Medical and Mental Health Visits Now Free
As you may know, virtual visits to see a physician are available to all members enrolled in either the Aetna or UnitedHealthcare plans. Virtual visits will be free for the next 60 days, and you can use them for both medical care and mental health. If you are a UnitedHealthcare HMO member, log in or register to access your portal at www.myuhc.com and download one of their virtual visit apps. For more information, contact UnitedHealthcare at 877-630-5898. If you are an Aetna member, visit member.teladoc.com/aetna or download the Teladoc mobile app. For more information, contact Aetna at 877-869-4077.
Do You Need Devices and Adapters to Work Offsite?
Getty Digital recommends devices in the attached PDF. Because these devices must be paid by your department, please obtain your supervisor’s approval for any purchase and reimbursement.
Change of Scenery
If you are looking to step up your presence on Zoom, check out the virtual background options on the Working Remotely channel on Getty Slack. And the Iris offers some options from the collection.
My Secure Advantage (MSA)
My Secure Advantage (MSA), our new financial wellness partner that offers free financial coaching to benefits-eligible employees, is raffling off a $100 Amazon gift card. Getty staff who complete an online financial assessment by April 15 will be entered in the raffle. You can use any computer to complete the assessment, but you must use Chrome (not Internet Explorer). MSA and Vanguard also have a number of financial resources available, including free webinars, to help manage your finances during these turbulent times. A full list can be found on the Getty’s Financial Wellness page.
NEWS
Getty Creates COVID-19 Relief Fund
Getty has created a $10 million relief fund to support Los Angeles-based non-profit museums and visual arts organizations in response to the coronavirus crisis. The fund, to be administered by the California Community Foundation, will provide emergency operating support and recovery grants to small and mid-size organizations located in Los Angeles County. The efforts will focus on museums and arts non-profits that contribute significantly to the region’s artistic diversity and are facing great difficulty during the coronavirus crisis. In addition, the CCF Fellowships for Visual Artists, launched more than 30 years ago through an endowment from the J. Paul Getty Trust to the California Community Foundation, will this year be repurposed to provide emergency support to visual artists.
Kavita Singh and Anne Sweeney Join Board
Art historian Kavita Singh and entertainment executive Anne Sweeney have joined the J. Paul Getty Trust Board of Trustees. Kavita Singh is a professor of art history at the School of Arts and Aesthetics of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, India. She has published several essays on secularism and religiosity, fraught national identities, and the memorialization of difficult histories as they relate to museums in South Asia and beyond. Entertainment executive Anne Sweeney was formerly president of the Disney–ABC Television Group, and co-chair of Disney Media Networks. She has served on the Netflix Board of Directors since 2015 and has been a member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees since 2016. She also served for 10 years on the Board of Advisers for the UCLA Anderson School of Management, stepping down earlier this year. She has been a member of the GCI Council for three years.
New Interface for AATA Online
On April 1, the GCI launched a new interface for AATA Online, the premier research tool for professionals engaged in the conservation and management of material cultural heritage. For more than 85 years, a committed group of experts and volunteers have identified relevant literature, submitted abstracts, provided subject indexing, and reviewed records for quality and consistency. The new interface significantly enhances the user experience in several ways, including an intuitive look and feel, better search capabilities, and more bibliographic export and sharing options. With over 148,000 database records describing literature dating from Pliny the Elder to the present, AATA Online continues to evolve for the benefit of the field.
GRI Acquires Emmett Williams Archive
American-born poet and visual artist Emmett Williams played a central role in Fluxus and in the concrete poetry movement. This archive covers his entire career, including his 1950s features for the US Army daily Stars and Stripes, his signature concrete poems, and his collaborations on prints and artists' books from the 1960s on. The archive joins material that American collector Jean Brown purchased from Williams during the 1970s and subsequently sold to the GRI as part of the Jean Brown Archive.
On Architectural Models and 3D Imaging
In early March scholars, archivists, and curators working in architectural collections in the US, Germany, and Canada came together, both virtually and physically, to participate in a two-day workshop related to the GRI Research Project "Understanding the Architectural Model: Research Applications in 3D Imaging." Led by Maristella Casciato (Curatorial), Emily Pugh (Digital Initiatives), and Todd Swanson (Getty Digital), and focused on the GRI’s collection of architectural models, workshop participants explored the models' materials and methods of construction, and discussed the merits of using 3D imaging technologies to enable their study and interpretation. A particular highlight was a tour of Frank Gehry’s offices, where architects—including Frank himself!—talked to the group about the role of models and modeling in their design process. Insights from this workshop will inform the GRI's broader effort to use 3D imaging technologies to expand researcher access to large and often fragile architectural models, which are otherwise difficult to study.
EVENTS
Getty Underground 2020
Since 1998, Getty Underground has been a biennial event to showcase and share the artistic talents of the entire Getty family, including staff, docents, volunteers, and contractors. Registration is now open. Get inspired—and learn this year’s theme—with this video made by the Getty Underground team. Getty Underground 2020 is anticipated to open on Monday, August 3, and run through October 7, 2020.
Last-Minute Michelangelo
Don’t miss this series of quick, last-minute videos with curator Julian Brooks as he walks through the Michelangelo exhibition just moments before staff left the Museum on March 16. They provide intimate and fascinating glimpses into the mind of the master.
Getty Art Recreation Challenge
Launched on social media on March 25, the Getty’s challenge to recreate art with household objects became a huge hit worldwide. Many thousands of people have taken up the challenge, and it has been highlighted by CBS News, The Today Show, USA Today, and countless news outlets far and wide. The British daily newspaper The Times even issued a bravo, calling out Getty’s challenge as one of the ways arts organizations are helping keep the world uplifted. The challenge started with a call to Getty staff to participate, and many did—their entries are among the most re-tweeted. If you haven’t already participated, maybe now’s the time! Kudos to Sarah Waldorf and Annelisa Stephan for master-minding the challenge—and for keeping up with the flow of entries and press interviews!
African American Art History at the GRI
Curator LeRonn Brooks and Kellie Jones, Columbia University professor and senior consultant on the AAAHI, join Jim Cuno to discuss the evolution of the study of art by African Americans and other artists of the African diaspora, the urgency of preserving critical archival materials, and their plans for the future of the initiative, in the latest Art + Ideas podcast.
STAFF SPOTLIGHT
Anniversaries this week
25 Years
- Eddie Campbell, Security Operations, Security
Comings and Goings
See how the Getty community is changing—and welcome new co-workers.
From InternalCommunications | internalcommunications@getty.edu