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LACMA AWARDED $300,000 BY GETTY FOUNDATION TO ESTABLISH

ARCHIVES RESEARCH PROGRAM

 

Los Angeles—The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has received a three-year grant in the amount of $300,000 from the Getty Foundation to establish the museum’s first institutional archives, to be known as the Archives Research Program (collectionsonline.lacma.org). Initially in 2004, the Getty Foundation provided a $122,000 grant towards the planning of the archival project, which included the development of an oral history program as well as a comprehensive survey of documents and records. The planning survey revealed that LACMA owns materials dating back to the early 1900s providing a unique insight into Los Angeles’ cultural history. The new grant will enable the museum to organize and preserve these materials, and will culminate with the establishment of the Archives Research Program, which will serve as a premiere resource for scholars, researchers, and students. Both grants are part of “On the Record: Art in L.A., 1945–1980,” a focus of the Getty’s ongoing initiative to help local institutions gather and preserve archival documents from this period.

 

“Several of our exhibitions have made history, including Art and Technology (1971) and Treasures of King Tutankhamen (1978), and have become the focus of scholarship in the field” said Renee Montgomery, Assistant Director of LACMA’s Collections Management and Information. “Thanks to the Getty's generous grant, we can provide greater access to the documentation of such seminal exhibitions and add to a variety of resources tracing local art.”

 

In December 2005, LACMA concluded the planning phase of the archival project, the centerpiece of which was a survey of twenty-eight curatorial, administrative, and support departments. The survey unveiled thousands of documents, including correspondence, videos and diagrams by major artists, and documentary photographs of Los Angeles landmarks, along with countless records corresponding to the museum’s forty-year history. The program will be an invaluable asset for anyone studying local art history, particularly from the vantage point of Los Angeles’ emergence as a cultural capital.

 

 

About the Getty Foundation

The Getty Foundation provides support to institutions and individuals throughout the world, funding a diverse range of projects that promote the understanding and conservation of the visual arts. For more information visit getty.edu/foundation. The Foundation is part of the J. Paul Getty Trust, which also includes the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute.

 

About LACMA

LACMA—the largest encyclopedic museum in the Western United States—is the only museum of its kind to make contemporary art a principal area of activity with the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM). The Renzo Piano-designed BCAM is a cornerstone of the museum’s ten-year project to dramatically renovate and expand LACMA’s twenty-acre campus. This evolving contemporary collection, coupled with the museum’s robust permanent collection of more than 100,000 works spanning the history of art and extensive free public programming, make LACMA the definitive cultural town square for the city of Los Angeles and its visitors.