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The Getty Leadership Institute (GLI), a unit within the Getty Foundation a program of larger J. Paul Getty Trust, is a direct response to the professional development needs of the museum field. Through its programs, online resources, and other activities, the GLI strives to strengthen and sustain current and future museum leaders and their institutions by bringing key constituencies together to question, learn and plan.
GLI's flagship program is MLI: The Museum Leadership Institute. Formerly known as the Museum Management Institute (MMI), it was first offered in 1979 in Berkeley, California under the auspices of the San Francisco-based Art Museum Association of America (AMAA) and the University of California Extension. The then four-week program was intended to improve the management skills of mid- and senior-level museum professionals, and faculty members were primarily leaders from the museum field. The J. Paul Getty Trust assumed full financial responsibility for the program in 1984 and AMAA administered the program on behalf of the Getty.
In 1986, MMI underwent a significant curriculum review. The process involved an assessment of the professional development needs of the museum field, as well as a consideration of the latest teaching approaches in executive education. The resulting new curriculum—introduced in 1987—emphasized management strategies and best practices from both the for-profit and nonprofit fields. New faculty members were recruited from the top ranks of executive education. At the same time, AMAA merged with the New York-based American Federation of Arts (AFA), and the AFA assumed administrative responsibility for MMI on behalf of the Getty. In 1992, MMI's administrative staff moved to the AFA's New York office.
From 1995 to 1997, another intensive look at the curriculum was taken. MMI staff surveyed the field, talked with alumni, and consulted with faculty members and other leaders in executive education. Because it was increasingly difficult to satisfy the needs of both mid- and senior-level museum professionals with a single program, MMI was targeted for those with the greatest ability to influence change in their institutions, i.e., museum directors and senior executive team members. The new curriculum—now in a three-week format—was first offered in 1997.
In January 2000, MMI became an in-house program of the Getty Trust. At the end of 2003, the program was renamed MLI: The Museum Leadership Institute, to better reflect the program's focus on leadership issues and its influence in the field. And in summer 2004, the program moved from Berkeley to its new home at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The new venue offers participants the opportunity to study at the Getty Center's dramatic hilltop campus, with areas for solitude and reflection as well as facilities and resources that encourage research and exchange.
Since its inception in 1979, MLI has served close to 1,000 museum professionals from the United States and 30 countries worldwide. The program continues to evolve to reflect best practices and emerging issues.
Today, in addition to the MLI program, the Getty Leadership Institute offers a portfolio of other professional development programs designed for board members, newly appointed directors, curators and staff deeper within the organization. These programs address current challenges and play a crucial role in keeping museum professionals up-to-date on the most pressing issues in a constantly shifting international environment.
The GLI, with its convening authority, also brings together leaders of cultural and philanthropic institutions, policy makers, board members, scholars and executives from other non-profits and the commercial cultural sector to pose, question and reframe issues of significance affecting the nonprofit field.
And finally, GLI has begun making efforts online...with the Compleat Leader which presents a compendium of issues, views and opinions affecting the museum field and invites comments.
Brent R. Benjamin Member 2008-2011
Director
The Saint Louis Art Museum
Louis B. Casagrande Member 2005-2009
President
The Childrens Museum, Boston
Wayne LaBar Member 2007-2010
Vice President, Exhibitions and Theaters
Liberty Science Center
Pamela L. Myers Member 2007-2010
Executive Director
Asheville Art Museum
Jane G. Pisano Member 2005-2009
President and Director
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
Charles Saumarez Smith Member 2005-2009
Secretary and Chief Executive
Royal Academy, London
Deborah F. Schwartz Member 2008-2011
President
The Brooklyn Historical Society
Gary Vikan Member 2008-2011
Director
The Walters Art Museum
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