Day 1.

Who thinks the Getty's a cool place to work in?

It's definitely weird coming from a small nonprofit community art gallery where I just worked w/ the executive director. On a normal day, it was just the two of us. In a normal week, we'd get probably 4 visitors that we don't know. My first minute in the Getty, I'm arriving to a parking lot which already had 2 levels full by 8:30am. Later in the day I found out that the Getty has about 1500 people working at the actual Getty Center. This doesn't include the newly reopened Getty Villa.

So from incredibly small to ridiculously huge is what I've experienced. From an intimate workspace to a giant "campus" of people who don't know each other from other departments.

I don't think the goats are counted in the 1500, but they definitely work. Apparently the Getty hires a goatherd and some goats to trim the grass on the hillside and they do a good job with the weeds. Supposedly that costs about $8000 but I don't know if that's per session or per year, but to quote someone today: "The Getty hemorrhages[sic] money."

I knew one of the issues I'd be noticing was the incredible amount of wealth the Getty's sitting on without an equal amount of care about the organization of that wealth. The way I heard it, it's like the Getty would throw money at problems instead of going to the core of the problem to fix it and prevent any similar things in the future. But if they're throwing money at me, I won't complain for these ten weeks.

One good thing a took away from my first day at the Getty is a bloated ego--that I am 1 of 21 interns selected from a pool of 145 or so applicants. My colleagues go to school in Columbia and Yale and Stanford and a lot of small colleges. Damn, I felt like small fish until I found out how exclusive we were, so Praise for that.

My supervisors are really cool guys, but I hesitate to say they're "chill" since they know how to keep busy. They've pretty much got my schedules for the whole week and probably the whole 10 weeks planned out. I like the tight ship they're running but I was also looking forward to exploring the other departments, but honestly, I think the Dpt. of PHotoggraphs is one of the best.

They took me into a study room full of art books--specifically, photography. I've never seen such a comprehensive collection in my life but I guess I should've expected it at the Getty. Then they took me to the actual collections room...55 degrees farenheit for the black and white stuff and a chilly 40 degrees for the color collection. I actually got to see a Nadar self-portrait from the 1860's in person.

All of Benjamin's talk of the imposed aura of the art object in photography was definitely coming alive there. Photography, an intrinsically reproducible medium, has recently become imbued with the same aura as the unique art object--the sculpture, the painting, the combine...yet this is still weird conssidering its dual nature as a reproducible medium. But for old photographys, I think this is a little more valid. Looking at things in person will always be different, and I'd say better, than seeing reproductions in art books.

I don't know what else to talk about. I considered making this a clandestine Dirty Little Secrets of the Getty-type thing but I have a feeling they'll find out somehow and thatll ruin me. To be honest however I'm excited to see how the next 10 weeks are going to go. I'm sur ethere'll be no shortage of interesting experiences. Today was even someone's bday in the Dpt. of Photos and I found out my dept. heads really do birthdays, despite runnning a tight ship. Too bad my birthday was earlier this month.

Living in Westwood rocks. I feel like every post-work afternoon will be full of Los Angeles adventure, gas willing. Please visit me.

I like how Multicultural implies "not-white." In reference to the program I'm in, the Multicultural Getty Undergraduate Internship, one said that it's basically affirmative action. And while I didn't quite agree on the exclusionary nature of the seemingly inclusive term "multicultural," it was revealed to me that most of the high positions in the world of art discourse and exhibition are held by white men. Apparently even women getting high curatorial titles is something that's big talk--AND WE'RE IN 2006.

So I came to appreciate this affirmative action internship. One visiting professor told me in response to my desire for a career in arts management--"That's good, what the art world needs is more non-white people."

Okay, let me qualify this by saying I'M NOT RACIST. Nor do I believe in reverse-racism which I've been exposed to quite a bit in the past few weeks. I don't say "kill whitey" or whatever. But to ignore the fact that a prolifically male, caucasian-dominated elite of arts managers and administrators supports hegemony is foolish. Diversity will naturally bring more democratic, heterogenous discourse, and that's long overdue.

That being said, it'll be a blast schmoozing my way into a position where I can help change the art world and thay it's thought about.

Oh, I totally forgot to mention my lament at the beginning of my yuppie-dom. Well I have to go, because tomorrow I start the day early at the Getty to learn how to recieve and send phone calls and e-mails, and I'm gonna be given an orientation of Human Resources.


*shivers*


God bless.


edit: there's a friggin' grass helipad at the getty. but al gore's the only one ot have used it. and firefighters needing it to fight fires in the hills.


the orientation game was exactly what i expected it to be: a bunch of yuppies such as myself running around the getty in a funny lame scavenger hunt for weird places in the getty for some mediocre prize. but i can't say it wasn't fun. it wasn't fun. losing, tha tis.