Mission & History

About the Getty Foundation

Mission

The Getty Foundation fulfills the philanthropic mission of the Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the greater understanding and preservation of the visual arts in Los Angeles and throughout the world. Through strategic grant initiatives, it strengthens art history as a global discipline, promotes the interdisciplinary practice of conservation, increases access to museum and archival collections, and develops current and future leaders in the visual arts. It carries out its work in collaboration with the other Getty Programs to ensure that they individually and collectively achieve maximum effect.

Our History

The Getty Foundation (initially called the Getty Grant Program) was established in 1984 in the belief that philanthropy is a key ingredient in carrying out the mission of the J. Paul Getty Trust. The Getty Trust is an international cultural organization that includes the Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Research Institute, and J. Paul Getty Museum. Drawing on our unique position as a grantmaking entity within the larger Getty Trust, we consult with staff from all Getty programs as well as colleagues in our fields to identify areas where grants can make a difference.

Since our inception, the Foundation's signature grant programs have made art history more interdisciplinary and international; created models for the practice of conservation emphasizing the importance of planning and training; increased access to museum and archival collections, most recently in digital form; and nurtured a generation of new leaders in the visual arts.

Getty has been the only major foundation dedicated to funding in the visual arts on a fully international basis. We have always defined the term "art" very broadly, to encompass all times, all places, and all media. To date, the Foundation has developed, assessed, awarded, and monitored 9,000 grants in more than 180 countries. You can browse the complete record in our online grant database.

1984–2007

For more than two decades, the Foundation accepted applications in defined program categories with regular submission deadlines. Grants were offered in the core fields that Getty serves: art history, conservation, and museums. We also tested out several special initiatives: limited-term grant programs designed to address particular challenges facing the field. These ranged from helping isolated art historians connect with their peers after the fall of the Berlin Wall through our Central and Eastern European Initiative, to responding to the needs of cultural organizations following Hurricane Katrina through our Fund for New Orleans. In addition, we initiated paid internship programs at two levels to invest in current and future arts leaders: the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internships to introduce students from underrepresented background to careers in the arts and Graduate Internships at Getty. Below are examples of retired grantmaking areas:

2008–2019

In 2008, partially in response to the global economic downturn but also with changing institutional priorities, the Getty Foundation shifted to strategic philanthropy and launched new grant initiatives with focused goals to achieve measurable impact. We designed these new programs to address defined problems in art history, the cultural heritage field, and the museum sector while maintaining our international reach. Highlights from this period are listed below:

2020–present

The arrival of the COVID pandemic affected all aspects of human life, including the arts. While the Getty Foundation maintained many of its programs with special provisions to extend the timeline of delayed projects and support digital programming and convenings, we also developed new initiatives. These range from locally-focused pandemic recovery to dedicated programs to diversify the conservation and museum fields. We’re also actively exploring new funding programs that will roll out once existing initiatives wrap up.

Back to Top