New Getty Center Exhibition Amplifies Intern Voices

The J. Paul Getty Museum presents Our Voices, Our Getty: Reflecting on Drawings, featuring personal and creative interpretations about drawings from the Getty Museum collection written by interns from the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship program.

The exhibition is on view at the Getty Center February 7 to April 30, 2023.

“We invited the 2022 Marrow Undergraduate Interns who spent their summer at Getty to participate in our first-ever exhibition involving wall labels written exclusively by interns,” said Edina Adam, assistant curator of drawings at the Getty Museum. “Each intern selected a different drawing to interpret, and it was astounding to read the richness of responses—some sentimental and nostalgic and others more contemplative and at times foreboding.”

The group of 23 interns hailing from Southern California colleges had the opportunity to examine a wide selection of drawings from the collection and choose an artwork that resonated with them. During the process of writing their selected artwork’s label text, they were encouraged to venture beyond art historical interpretations and share personal reflections on their selection.

“When I learned my words would be on the wall of the museum, I immediately pictured the joy of bringing family and friends to Getty to show them why I chose to dedicate my education and career to the arts,” said Jessica Jurado, California State University, Northridge. “The experience of writing a personal interpretation challenged me to look at the artwork beyond the lens of an art historical perspective and tune in to the aspects of the work that captured my attention. I hope this exhibition will demonstrate to viewers that their thoughts on art matter, and art is for everyone.”

Brianna Aguilera from California State University, Long Beach, found similarities between her artwork and Hans Hoffmann’s 16th-century drawing Flowers and Beetles. “As an artist, I create large metal sculptures in the shape of flowers,” wrote Aguilera. “Suspended from the ceiling, they cover me like an umbrella and transport me back to my childhood, to my grandmother’s verdant yard.”

Corey Solorio LoDuca from Scripps College brought the early 19th-century drawing Self-Portrait by Charles Samuel Keene into the contemporary context of gender identity. While there is no evidence the artist intended to depict androgyny, LoDuca was drawn to the ambiguous physical appearance of the subject and wrote an imagined quote on behalf of the artist. “I embody gender as a creative expression, adding textured cross-hatching to my drawing or shading parts of myself out of focus,” LoDuca writes.

Other works interpreted by the interns include drawings by Louis-François Cassas, Barbara Regina Dietzsch, Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, and more.

Since 1993, Getty Marrow internships have provided paid, full-time work opportunities each summer at Getty and at dozens of other arts organizations and museums across Los Angeles County for undergraduate students from backgrounds that have traditionally been underrepresented in arts institutions. The Getty Foundation released a comprehensive report to assess the program’s impact on over 3,000 alumni since the internship program began and learned nearly one third of alumni pursued a career in the arts, with a growing number now in leadership positions in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

In addition to participating in this exhibition, each of last summer’s interns spent their 10-week experience working on a variety of substantive projects. These ranged from exhibition research and digital video production to serving as assistant line producer for the Getty Villa’s summer theater production.

“Enriching, hands-on projects are a hallmark of the Getty Marrow program, introducing interns to the many and varied career paths in the arts,” said Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation. “We are deeply grateful to these interns for sharing their unique perspectives and talents with us through this exhibition.”

Another way in which Getty is expanding opportunities for diverse young professionals is Getty Marrow Emerging Professionals, a pilot program launched in 2022 to provide full-time, early career jobs at arts museums and nonprofits to individuals from historically underrepresented groups.

Our Voices, Our Getty: Reflecting on Drawings is curated by Edina Adam, assistant curator of drawings at the Getty Museum.