Mission and History

The Getty Conservation Institute works internationally to advance conservation practice in the visual arts—objects, collections, architecture, and sites. We serve the conservation community through scientific research, education and training, field projects, and disseminating information. In all our endeavors, we create and deliver knowledge that contributes to the conservation of the world's cultural heritage.

Our work is driven by the values of excellence, innovation, leadership, collaboration, and service.

We will be recognized as an independent, international center of excellence for cultural heritage conservation. We will be seen as a thought leader and innovator that deals with important issues and, through effective partnership, achieves long-term sustainable solutions in the service of the world’s cultural heritage. To achieve this, we will be an inspiring, creative work environment that encourages collaboration and interdisciplinary working.

We seek work that addresses unsolved problems, has the potential for impact beyond a particular object or site, and will be sustainable in the long run. Success means that our work increases knowledge, provides new or improved analytical techniques and conservation strategies, and ultimately assists and serves those charged with the care of the world’s cultural heritage.

The Getty Conservation Institute was formed in 1985 as one of the original operating programs of the newly created J. Paul Getty Trust. Initially housed in temporary offices in Marina del Rey, the Institute moved to its permanent home at the Getty Center in 1996.

Since its inception, the Conservation Institute has devoted itself to issues and areas of work that are underserved or of particular interest to the conservation field. It has evolved to meet changing needs, resources, and technologies, always emphasizing service to the greater conservation community.

In its forty-year history, the Institute has carried out architectural, archaeological, and other built-heritage projects in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. Staff have also conducted extensive scientific research on modern paints, plastics, outdoor sculpture, photographs, concrete, animation cels, plasters, earthen materials, and neon. The organization of workshops, symposia, courses, and practical training programs has also been key to the Institute’s work.

Today, the Institute is part of the worldwide ecosystem of heritage conservation, contributing to the collective goal of protecting and preserving the world’s cultural heritage through the education of heritage conservation practitioners, establishment and implementation of policies, advocacy to save threatened places, scholarship to create new methodologies, and science to forge new treatments.

The world’s cultural heritage is under increasing pressure from development, climate change, shifts in governance and funding, and over-tourism. The Getty Conservation Institute regularly reviews our work in response to the current context and to ensure that we are best meeting emerging challenges. In 2023 Conservation Institute staff embarked on strategic planning for the next five-year period and to develop our strategic plan 2025–2030.

Our first step was to reflect deeply on the current challenges affecting cultural heritage conservation today and identify the needs of the field. Then Institute staff—conservators, chemists, materials scientists, engineers, architects, archaeologists, historians, editors, librarians, archivists, data managers, and administrative specialists—participated in a yearlong process of meetings, discussions, and surveys to determine which of these needs our knowledge, experience, expertise, and resources are best able to address.

What follows is our plan for how the Conservation Institute can meet these identified strategic needs and best contribute to advancing the field of cultural heritage conservation internationally. It articulates our goals and priorities for the five-year period ending in 2030 and is rooted in our four decades of work advancing conservation practice worldwide.

We will strengthen our role as a leader in sustainability and in response to climate change in the heritage field.

To accomplish this, we will:

• Establish more sustainable solutions for collections, storage, emergency preparedness, and transit
• Develop and integrate modules and expand materials on disaster response, climate mitigation, adaptation, and carbon reduction strategies across our training portfolio
• Train and support heritage professionals in the development and implementation ofheritage surveys, inventories, and sustainable data management as core conservation work, including supporting application of the Arches® software platform as a key tool
• Develop a range of easy-to-use environmental monitoring tools for predicting materials’ responses to different environments
• Expand research and dissemination on understanding and monitoring the impact of climate change and identifying mitigation and adaptation responses, such as developing risk assessment and monitoring tools and guidelines on adaptation solutions
• Advance the work of our ongoing Nea Paphos Conservation and Management Project including piloting climate change assessment methodologies and tools, and modelling adaptation and mitigation responses

We will work to diversify heritage practice by recognizing and integrating a broader range of knowledge, values, approaches, professionals, and communities.

To accomplish this, we will:

• Reinforce the values-based approach to conservation in all our work including developing guidance and tools for working with communities to identify and conserve the social value and intangible attributes of their heritage places, collections, and archives
• Develop projects that model the integration of traditional practices into contemporary solutions, for example, seismic retrofitting and pest management
• Initiate projects that foreground Indigenous knowledge and practice, such as rock art
• Engage with broader scientific communities—artificial intelligence, imaging, data science—to leverage existing scientific methods and approaches
• Cultivate strategic partnerships with diverse organizations to challenge and enrich our approaches and expand our impact

We will expand access to training and learning opportunities to underserved regions of the world, communities, and areas of practice.

To accomplish this we will:

• Make Conservation Institute training materials freely available through open access
• Develop training from our Managing Collection Environments, Conserving Modern Architecture and Earthen Architecture initiatives to build regional capacity in South America, Middle East, Africa, and Asia
• Develop new training courses for underserved topics such as modern materials, rock art, wall paintings, preservation of archives, and analytical methods and tools
• Research and develop new and emerging pedagogical approaches, methods, and tools for training
• Deliver training with committed partners who can carry out the training independently in the long term

We will prioritize research that supports practical conservation approaches, solutions, and tools.

To accomplish this, we will:

• Expand modern materials conservation research to include preventive approaches and translate learnings into guidance and training
• Undertake research to develop sustainable conservation approaches and treatments, recognizing locally available resources such as greener solvents, passive environmental control, capping, grouts, and coatings for earthen architecture and wall paintings -Develop easy-to-use methodologies and tools that support field-based materials’ characterizations, analysis, and monitoring -Develop research in accelerated aging protocols to inform treatment compatibility and the environmental response of materials
• Identify case studies and field projects that provide opportunities for research and outreach

We will serve as a recognized source of globally accessible information and resources for conservation practice.

To accomplish this, we will:

• Conduct research and develop metrics to better understand the needs of our current users and identify new audiences, regions, sectors, and topics that can benefit from access to our information
• Disseminate and make our work freely available
• Increase global access to information and resources via external platforms.
• Make our work freely available and accessible through open access in different languages and media

We will advance the integration of heritage conservation into broader policy, including environmental, social, and planning frameworks.

To accomplish this, we will:

• Support staff to engage in standards committees and policy groups that develop and influence cultural heritage policy
• Develop and integrate seismic retrofit project outcomes for earthen buildings into building codes in Peru and disseminate as a model
• Advance research to develop a model that quantifies and qualifies the economic and environmental benefits of conservation
• Develop a toolkit from the work of our African American Historic Places Los Angeles project to identify mechanisms and recommendations to inform policies and practices that integrate equitable heritage into planning frameworks

We will support our staff in their professional growth.

To accomplish this, we will:

• Provide staff with professional development opportunities and resources
• Engage and support recruiting practices that increase the diversity of our staff
• Continue to develop and improve participatory planning processes
• Prioritize communication and transparency in our internal policies and decision-making
• Upskill our staff in climate change and sustainable development literacy and the use of related core tools