WEEKLY STAFF NEWS | 6.22.2020
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Video of All-Staff Meeting
A video of the quarterly all-staff meeting and town hall that was held via Zoom on Tuesday is now available to view on GO (you must connect via Pulse Secure). COVID-19 recovery and questions and answers regarding race, equity, and justice issues were discussed in the meeting.
Permission to Come on Site
Staff who need to come on site, and who are not already on the Phase 2A access list, must obtain the permission of their lead administrator (Programs) or department head (Trust departments). When requesting access, include the site you wish to visit as well as your anticipated arrival date and time. Your department head or lead Program administrator will relay approved requests to Security in advance of your visit. Please provide a minimum of 24 hours’ notice prior to your anticipated arrival time when requesting access. General business reservations are not permitted at this time. Security, Facilities, and contract staff who are regularly scheduled to be on site do not need to request access.
Financial Wellness Webinars
My Secure Advantage (MSA) has three upcoming webinars dedicated to retirement planning. Check out more information, as well as recordings of previous webinars that focus on helping you navigate your finances during the pandemic. If you haven’t scheduled a session with a Money Coach, you can make an appointment for this free benefit by logging on to MSA from any computer.
NEWS
Grants Awarded for COVID-19 Relief
Four hundred artists and 80 arts organizations received $2.7 million in total grants from the Getty and the California Community Foundation as part of a broad-based COVID-19 relief effort for the visual arts in the Los Angeles region. The emergency support was designed to reach individual artists throughout all areas of LA County and arts organizations that serve the region’s culturally diverse communities. The grants will provide support to meet urgent financial needs over the next three months, including staff salaries, rent, and emergency supplies to comply with public health measures. This basic operating support will also allow organizations some leeway to plan for reopening, restructuring, and collaboration. Read more and see the full list of organizations receiving grants on the Iris.
EVENTS
DIY Crowns Inspired by Renaissance Manuscripts
Often made from gold, silver, or other metal bands and embellished with gems or jewels, crowns are among the most prevalent symbols of royal or saintly status. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the crown’s jewels carried their own symbolism. To understand the power of these gems, the wearer would turn to a manuscript called a lapidary, which contained scientific and medicinal accounts about precious and semi-precious stones. These step-by-step instructions reveal how to make your own crown out of craft supplies.
Reflections on Ajax and Achilles
Every Tuesday, curators share short audio reflections on works of art they’re thinking about right now. This week, curator David Saunders reflects on how a painted vase from around 510 BCE that shows Ajax and Achilles playing board games helps him make sense of his work-from-home life.
Rethinking Early Modern Animal Studies with a Turkey
We now stand face to face with the Sixth Extinction, the most devastating mass extinction event in the past 66 million years. How might art history, which has conventionally focused on works produced by the human species, respond to this crisis? Might a renewed attention to human-animal relations alter art history’s bias toward humans? And what might such an art history look like? Getty Scholar Sugata Ray takes 17th-century paintings of the North American turkey—a bird that was introduced in the Indian Ocean world through European ecological imperialism in the Americas—as a point of departure to explore these questions. Join the webinar on Wednesday, June 24, at 10 a.m.
STAFF SPOTLIGHT
Creativity begins at Home
Staff has been finding some thoughtful ways to pass time at home over the last several months. This week, hear from three docents. To share how you’ve been passing the time, email internalcommunications@getty.edu.
- Marilyn Ruman, Docent: “Seeing this time as transformative frames it to creatively accept its reality and use oneself in powerful if novel ways. I have reached out to become more intimate with people who were more proximate and I have treasured more those who were already. I have taken my skills as a psychologist and reached out to counsel first responders. And as for the Getty I am reaffirmed on a continual basis how strong a community of docents, staff, and volunteers we have. Our weekly Zoom meetings and our desire to continue learning and serving is a testament not only to our creative spirit but our commitment.”
- Frank Damon, Docent: “I am teaching a class on memory training through the UCLA Longevity Center. I tailored the script for the Zoom era, which means condensing the original script of eight hours into a Zoomable one of six hours. We are donating to many causes, mostly through various UCLA and food funds. We had a Zoom surprise party for a friend who turned 75 and it was actually better, in a way, than if there was no Zoom. Mainly because everyone around the country could attend, although we couldn’t hug each other.”
- Lois Gordon, Docent: “My husband and I have watched several operas sent out by the Metropolitan Opera, which we've enjoyed. We've also seen a couple of Shakespeare productions streamed by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada. One of them, Coriolanus, was particularly good. We both walk every morning, and I bike once a week, at least if the weather is good. And we have had Zoom sessions with our families (our seven-year-old granddaughter delights us with telling jokes she gets from a joke book she's enjoying—as are we!). We're getting good take-out meals from some of the local restaurants. We're finding ways to fill our time, mostly constructively, but we do look forward to the end of the lockdown, and, especially, I look forward to resuming tours at the Getty. Hope all of you at the Getty are doing well and managing to keep active and busy. We miss you!”
No Getty Anniversaries This Week
Comings and Goings
See how the Getty community is changing—and welcome new co-workers.
From InternalCommunications | internalcommunications@getty.edu