Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internships

Paid summer internships at museums and visual arts organizations in LA for college students from backgrounds underrepresented in the arts

Project Details

A person in a large room uses measuring tape and documents the dimensions of an art object.

Arianne Ohara, 2022 Getty Marrow Intern at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

© 2022 J. Paul Getty Trust

About

Goal

The goal of the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship program is to expose college students from backgrounds that have been underrepresented in the arts to careers in museums and visual arts organizations.

The program offers paid internships in core areas of museum work such as curatorship, conservation, education, publications, and public programming. No prior work experience or educational background in the arts is required.

Outcomes

  • To date, 175 LA-area arts institutions, including Getty, have hosted over 3,700 interns, introducing college students to career possibilities in the arts

  • According to alumni surveys, approximately one-third of interns have gone on to work in the arts

  • Nearly all alumni working in the arts (92%) say their internship influenced their decision to pursue a long-term arts career

  • 97% of alumni say their knowledge of and familiarity with art organizations increased due to their internship

Background

Since 1993, the Getty Foundation has dedicated upwards of $14 million to support over 3,700 internships at 175 local arts institutions, including Getty. The program has also inspired a public-private partnership between Getty and the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, which followed the Foundation’s lead in 2000 by starting a parallel program of undergraduate internships focused on the performing and literary arts. Together, this alliance forms the largest paid arts internship program in the country.

Originally titled the Multicultural Undergraduate Internship program, the program was renamed in 2018 to honor its founder and long-time Getty Foundation director Deborah Marrow. To learn more about the program's impact, read the Impact Report.

Program Details

Professional Development for Alumni

The Foundation has offered ongoing professional development for alumni of the program based on evaluations conducted over the years that have found a need for continuing professional development opportunities, along with a desire for greater connection to Getty and each other. Alumni are notified of these opportunities through direct email campaigns, a quarterly Alumni Newsletter (subscribe here), and a dedicated LinkedIn group for program alumni.

The newest professional development offering, begun in 2022, is the Getty Marrow Emerging Professionals pilot program, which provides full-time, early career jobs at arts museums and nonprofits to individuals from historically underrepresented groups.

Other professional development opportunities have included day-long workshops; fellowships for Getty alumni to attend annual conferences of the American Alliance of Museums, the California Association of Museums, and the Association of Art Museum Curators; participation in programs led by the Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University; and a Leadership in Arts Management Program in partnership with the LA County Arts Commission, which offers a sister internship program for the performing, literary, and civic arts. Alumni are notified of these opportunities through direct email campaigns and our dedicated LinkedIn group for program alumni.

Contact us

Please address inquiries to:

Phone: (310) 440-7320
E-mail: summerinterns@getty.edu

Resources