WEEKLY STAFF NEWS | 6.15.2020
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
All-Staff Meeting Tomorrow
Staff, volunteers, and docents are invited to the all-staff meeting on Zoom, Tuesday, June 16, at 10:30 a.m. The meeting will include a Town Hall question-and-answer session regarding race, equity, and support for the Black community. In addition, some staff have submitted questions regarding COVID-19, and we will address those as well. The agenda, with Zoom instructions, is attached. Please connect to the meeting using an Internet browser, and do not use the Pulse Secure VPN to log into Zoom; the VPN is not large enough to accommodate everyone. The meeting will be recorded and posted on GO, for those who can’t attend.
Day of Reflection
This Wednesday, June 17, will be a paid day for employees to unplug from work—email, meetings, phones—and choose to spend the day in a manner that is most meaningful and helpful to them at this time. Staff who are required to work on June 17 can arrange with their supervisors for an alternate day. See attached for timecard coding instructions.
Business Use of Personal Devices
The work-from-home stipend announced last week will be extended to include staff working from home on Getty laptops and cell phones, in addition to those who are using personal devices. (The stipend does not apply to senior leadership staff.) As noted previously, the initial stipend of $50 a month will cover the period of March-June and will be made in one payment included in the June 19 paycheck. Thereafter, reimbursements will be managed through the expense reporting process for each department.
LA County Greenlights Museum Reopenings
As you may have seen in the news, Los Angeles County has said museums are among the public gathering places that can reopen—as long as certain safety measures are in place. We do not yet have a date for reopening, but we look forward to welcoming visitors back to our sites later this summer. To that end, we are working on a host of measures required by County health officials to assure that visitors can enjoy our galleries, collections, and grounds safely and within social distancing guidelines. One of the requirements is a detailed online reservation system. We anticipate that the visitor experience will be different, with limited numbers of people on site, and galleries opening on a phased basis, but we know that people are eager to come back and we are eager to welcome them. We will keep you posted as we move toward reopening.
County Health Orders At the direction of LA County Department of Public Health, we have posted the updated copy of the County Health Orders “Reopening Safer at Work and in the Community for Control of COVID-19,” as well as the specific protocols for Office Worksites and Warehouses at the entrances to our sites and are posting them on Getty.edu/staff for review. The protocols, attached here, outline the specific requirements to ensure that workplaces are safe for the health of everyone on site. As these orders and protocols are updated we will update those posts. Please review at your convenience. If you have any questions or concerns regarding Getty compliance, please contact Les Borsay lborsay@getty.edu.
NEWS
Getty Underground 2020 Vision Goes Virtual
Getty Underground opens September 8 and continues through December 31. During this time of continued social distancing and safer-at-home orders, and the continued Getty site closures and gathering restrictions, a decision has been made to present Getty Underground 2020 Vision in a virtual platform. All size and material restrictions have been lifted! And, although we understand that there is something exhilarating about a live audience, a virtual experience is the safest way to share our talents.
Registration is now open and ends July 24, 2020. Sign up to showcase your 2D or 3D art; film, video or performance artwork; spoken word; and culinary art. Since 1998, Getty Underground (GU) has been a biennial event to showcase and share the artistic talents of Getty staff, volunteers, and docents. Everyone is encouraged to participate in as many ways as they like.
Art, music, and performance can still connect us during this time of separation and we are looking forward to seeing your inspired works from this unique time in history. Here’s the launch video for some inspiration. Please contact GettyUnderground@getty.edu if you have questions.
Tadao Takano’s Cybergrams
In the early 1980s, artist Tadao Takano created a type of abstract image he called “cybergrams,” which utilized a robotic machine controlled by an IBM 5160 computer to expose gelatin silver paper to multiple versions of the same image. Discover how one of Takano’s former students became the caretaker of his archive after he died and recently donated 25 of his images to the Getty Museum’s Department of Photographs.
EVENTS
Architecture, Community, and War in Syria
An architect at the beginning of her career, Marwa al-Sabouni was determined to pursue her PhD in architecture, even as the Syrian civil war raged and her apartment building was caught in the crossfire between the Syrian army and opposition groups. Al-Sabouni published her reflections on war, urbanism, and the relationship between architecture and community in her 2016 memoir The Battle for Home: The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria. In this episode of the Art + Ideas podcast, she discusses her life and her understandings of architecture, identity, and culture.
Reflections: Zanna Gilbert on Ed Ruscha
We’ve asked curators to talk about works of art they’re thinking about right now in a series of short podcasts we’re calling Reflections, focusing on the way we’re living our daily lives. This week, GRI Senior Research Specialist Zanna Gilbert reflects on the empty streets of Ed Ruscha’s Streets of Los Angeles project, begun in 1966. Over the next few weeks, look for new recordings every Tuesday.
STAFF SPOTLIGHT
Creativity begins at Home
While we continue to spend time at home, we want to share a few fascinating ways staff has been passing the time. Email internalcommunications@getty.edu to share what you’ve been doing.
- Keishia Gu, Head of Museum Education: “In all oddities, my two-year-old and I have become squirrel whisperers. The same female squirrel (we named her Sochi) has been coming to my front door since I started working from home. One day it started when I was sitting outside and on a Getty conference call. While I was eating a piece of Swiss cheese, the squirrel came and took it from my hand. Since March, Sochi arrives every afternoon between 3-6 p.m. and scratches on the house. In nine weeks, I’ve learned a lot about squirrel diets, and spent a lot of money on gourmet nuts and making fancy salads and nutritious milk/formula bottles as part of my daily routine. Sochi has become very popular on social media when my friends are just looking for a light-hearted laugh. It’s actually the type of reconnection with nature and environment that happens when we slow down.”
- Scott Lindner, Museum Store: “I think it’s fitting since the Getty is all about art, art education, and art preservation that I have been spending my time creating works of art. I have been able to complete several works including a large multi-panel painting that measures 10 x 6 feet in overall size. It’s a mixed media piece that incorporates gold leaf, oil paint, and my own resin paint mixture. The work is inspired by my love of 19th-century photography. The central image is a landscape photograph by the photographer Edward S. Curtis out on the open prairie of a Native American teepee encampment. I wanted to create a dreamy mirage-like image in black and white, like the photograph, on a vibrantly alive background. It is my contemporary interpretation of this image, bringing it into the present with my eclectic mix of medium and style breathing new life into this image.”
- Judy Rosenzweig, Docent: “I thought I would tell you what I have done with the little free library in front of our house. I am not particularly skilled with all things green, but I seem to have quite a bit of luck with succulents—the crassulas, baby necklace, ruffle jade, calico kitten—and these unique beauties had thrived in my yard. I gathered a couple of old pots and made four arrangements. I put them in the little free library with a sign that read "Even if I knew today that tomorrow the world would go to pieces I would still plant my apple tree today." (Martin Luther). I added "Please take one if you like. They need sun, a little water and a smile." With all the people walking past, the arrangements were gone in a day. Every few days I would make a few more succulent designs. I ran out of containers, so I put up a sign that said "Instead of books we've been sharing small succulent arrangements but I have run out of small containers. If you have any I will put them to good use." Sure enough the next day I had a variety of containers. One woman dropped off 25 two-inch terra cotta pots. Those plus a variety of others kept me in business for the next three weeks. I figured if I could grow these anyone could and hopefully they would bring a bit of joy during these strange and stressful times. People left me thank you notes, one woman offered to bring me one of her handmade masks, and I made a couple of new friends. The family across the street said that they had fun watching people stop, read the sign, decide whether to take one, and then decide which one. My arrangements were all different and I found it very relaxing to design and work with the plants.”
Anniversaries This Week
35 Years
- Susan Colangelo, Administration Department, GRI
Retirements This Week
Grounds Supervisor Michael DeHart has retired, almost 30 years to the day since he came to work at the Villa as Getty’s first horticulturist. Michael quickly became an expert in Roman plants and grew famous for the tours he conducted dressed in a toga. He helped prepare the Center landscape and the Central Garden for public viewing. He will be missed by the crew who respected him for his deep knowledge of horticulture delivered with humor, and by the rest of us, who enjoyed working with him.
Comings and Goings
See how the Getty community is changing—and welcome new co-workers.
From InternalCommunications | internalcommunications@getty.edu
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