Dear Colleagues,
This past week was among the most difficult in our history.
This past weekend saw historic numbers of protests around the world against the senseless killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. Memorial services begin today in Houston for George Floyd. Also today, some Getty employees will be returning to our sites for the first time in three months, a sign of progress, but sadly after Los Angeles County has surpassed more than 60,000 cases and 2,500 deaths from COVID-19. There is evidence that the pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on our nation’s communities of color compounding the painful truth of systemic discrimination, racism, and inequality.
What is worse is that we cannot be with each other to talk together about these things, and are forced instead to communicate by such impersonal devises and technologies as email, telephone, and videoconferencing.
We must all take a breath, think and speak clearly, listen to one other, and base our collective actions on Getty’s mission to promote a vital civil society through a greater understanding of the visual arts. As our trustee Mary Schmidt Campbell, president of Spelman College, told me recently, the visual arts are more important now than ever, for they lay bare the truth of our common experience as human beings.
Our promotion of a vital civil society is evident in everything we do at Getty, from opening our galleries and gardens for free to all and providing free docent-led tours to more than 130,000 Title-1 elementary school students annually; to our hosting to date more than 3,300 undergraduate internships through our Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship program, established in 1993; to our commitment to the Getty Day of Service; and our recently established LA Arts COVID-19 Relief fund supporting nonprofit museums and visual arts organizations throughout Los Angeles.
All this said, however, we have much to do from within Getty to support diversity, equity and inclusion. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Council will be critically important in this respect, helping us make meaningful change and navigate the days ahead. Our colleagues who volunteered to serve on the Council, as well as department and program Task Forces, have been meeting for the last several weeks to identify priorities and prepare to tackle this important work. To support the Getty's DEI work, we invite you to send ideas and suggestions to GettyDEICouncil@getty.edu.
In the meantime we will:
- devote much of our Getty All Staff meeting, Tuesday, June 16, to addressing these and other matters in conversation, albeit via Zoom (please put that date, at 10:30 a.m., on your calendars. Look for the Zoom information, and submit your questions to internalcommunications@getty.edu by Friday, June 12);
- recognize that we have been through much in the past few months, and so on Wednesday, June 17, we will pause for a Getty Day of Reflection, a time to rest, to step away from our devices, to reflect on the lives lost, the meaning of these times, and our personal roles in them;
- research how we might personally and individually make gifts through the Getty Foundation in support of our social causes and in keeping with the terms of Getty’s charitable status (in the meantime, we urge you to explore the many opportunities to contribute to local charities that appeal to you most);
- and learn and educate ourselves on issues of race and justice; we will be sharing resources on the DEI website within Getty GO.
We will be discussing all of this when our Board of Trustees meets this Sunday, June 14. I have been consulting many of them personally since last week, including our Chair, David Lee (also chair of CalTech’s board), and members Mary Schmidt Campbell, Drew Faust (former president of Harvard University), Pamela Joyner, and Ambassador Ronald Spogli. They and all of our trustees are dedicated to strengthening Getty. We are fortunate to have the benefit of their judgment and experience.
We acknowledge that change will be difficult and will not come quickly. To this end, we reaffirm our commitment to listen to and talk with each other, and have our work take on a heightened sense of urgency. We have to create space within our institution to think about doing things differently.
Stay healthy and be safe,
Jim
James Cuno
President & CEO
J. Paul Getty Trust
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90049
T (310) 440 7600 | getty.edu