Archinect - News

Getty Trust releases $1 million to help Ukraine's fight to preserve its cultural heritage

2022-11-09T16:50:00-05:00

A new $1 million grant from the J. Paul Getty Trust is being advanced to the International alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH) to ensure the protection of vulnerable cultural sites across Ukraine that have come under fire since the Russian Federation’s illegal invasion began in February.

The new round of funding helps support the existing Ukrainian Action Plan, which has so far allocated some $3 million towards similar projects in the country under threat from the war and impending winter chill.

UNESCO has thus far identified some 204 cultural sites (up from June’s figure of 139) that have suffered some amount of damage due to conflict. The monies will therefore be spent towards implementing climate-controlled storage methods and improving security measures at museums and other cultural institutions, deployment of “preventive conservation methods”, and preparation of stabilization methods for sites that could come under fire in the future.

Related on A...

Getty Foundation awards 400 artists and 80 arts organizations $2.7 million in COVID-19 relief grants

2020-06-18T12:59:00-04:00

400 artists and 80 arts organizations have received $2.7 million in total grants as part of a broad-based COVID-19 relief effort for the visual arts in the Los Angeles region, the J. Paul Getty Trust and the California Community Foundation announced this week.

"The arts are a source of expression, resistance, and healing,” said Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation in a statement. "But our creative artists and arts organizations, who do so much to advocate for social change, will not survive this pandemic and its economic fallout if we don’t take action now to support them."

Organizations that received aid include the A+D Architecture + Design Museum; the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los

Angeles; Inner City Arts; LAXART; the Los Angeles Conservancy; the Vincent Price Art Museum Foundation; and the Women's Center for Creative Work, among others

Many artists and arts organizations have struggled due to the economic impact of COVID-19. The more than $2 million in eme...

A plan for the Johnson Publishing Co. photo archives is taking shape

2020-03-11T14:40:00-04:00

A nonprofit consortium consisting of the Getty Research Institute, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution has taken another step toward preserving the photo archives of the Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago.

A press release published by the group indicates that the consortium has created an Advisory Council that will "inform the preservation and future use of the historic photographic collection," which contains some 3.35 million negatives and slides, 983,000 photographs, 166,000 contact sheets, and 9,200 audio and visual recordings. The collection, according to the group, is "the most significant collection illustrating African American life in the 20th century."

Previously on Archinect: "Consortium Led by Getty Trust Purchases "Ebony" and "Jet" Photo Archives." Photograph of Ebony editor Lerone Bennett working in his office at the Johnson Publishing Compa...

US Pentagon: Iranian cultural sites will not be bombed

2020-01-07T12:50:00-05:00

The United States Pentagon is working to distance itself from a series of statements made US President Donald Trump threatening to target Iranian cultural sites were military conflict to break out between the two nations.

According to The Associated Press, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the US will “follow the laws of armed conflict” in the event of military conflict with Iran, adding that when asked to clarify whether the department's plan explicitly rules out targeting cultural sites, Esper added, “That’s the laws of armed conflict.”

The threats initially made by the president were widely received as indications that the United States was willing to perpetuate war crimes against the country's cultural heritage, in violation of the Geneva Convention Protocol that prohibits acts of hostility against these types of sites. The statements drew comparisons around the globe to acts of cultural terrorism enacted by the Taliban against the Bamyan Buddahs, in Afghanistan, for example, a...

The Getty devotes $100 million to global “Ancient Worlds Now: A Future for the Past” conservation initiative

2019-09-23T15:45:00-04:00

As a response to the race against time to preserve the world's ancient cultural heritage, The Getty recently announced an ambitious, $100 million initiative called “Ancient Worlds Now: A Future for the Past” that aims to promote a stronger understanding of global cultural heritage and its value to present and future society. Although activities related to the decade-long initiative are already underway, an official launch is scheduled for next summer.

Main objectives of the initiative include:

raising broad awareness of the threats to ancient heritage caused by development, economic pressures, mass tourism, political forces, climate change, and violent conflict;
creating effective conservation strategies and educational programs to engage audiences worldwide about the significance of protecting ancient sites;
and pursuing further research to strengthen understanding of the interconnections between ancient cultures.

“In an age of resurgent populism, sectarian violence, and climate ch...

Consortium Led by Getty Trust Purchases "Ebony" and "Jet" Photo Archives

2019-07-25T14:22:00-04:00

The Chicago-based company Johnson Publishing, which filed for bankruptcy in April, has sold the archive of images from Ebony and Jet Magazine to the J. Paul Getty Trust, which, according to court documents filed Wednesday night, paid $28.5 million at auction in the Windy City yesterday. The archive includes millions of iconic images of African American figures like Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., and Billie Holiday.

A consortium led by the Getty Foundation has acquired the iconic Ebony and Jet magazine archives. The group includes the Ford Foundation, the Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Julie Bosman of The New York Times reported via Twitter that the group has pledged to donate the archive to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Getty Research Institute so that its contents can become available to the public, researchers, and scholars. The acquisition is pending court approval and the closing of the sale.

In a press release announcing the sale, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker said, “We’re thrilled with the outcome. This archive is a national treasure and one of tremendous importance to the telling of black history in America. We felt it was imperative to preserve these images, to give them the exposure they deserve and make them readily available to the public.”

In 2018, Chicago-based Rebuild Foundation a...

Frank Gehry Awarded Getty Medal For "Changing the Course of Architecture"

2015-05-21T17:21:00-04:00

Gehry becomes the first designer or artist to win the award that the Getty launched in 2013. The prize – a bronze medal with a profile portrait of J. Paul Getty – recognizes lifetime contributions in various art-related fields that are part of the Getty’s mission, including philanthropy, art-history research, archeology and conservation of art and architecture, as well as art-making.

Frank Gehry can now add the Getty Medal to his collection of esteemed prizes, including the Pritzker, the Order of Canada, and the AIA Gold Medal. The Getty Trust announced the awarding of the medal to Gehry, with an official dinner to follow on September 28, 2015. The award seems fitting for a man who, while he has never been comfortable calling himself an artist, last year stated that "I don't beg for work. I don't have publicists. I'm not waiting for people to call me. I work with clients who have respect for the art of architecture."

As J. Paul Getty Trust President and CEO James Cuno noted, "There have been very few individuals in all of history who have changed the course of architecture, and Frank is one of them. He effectively reinvented architecture with his use of new technologies in the design of beautiful and iconic buildings. And architecture will never be the same as a result.”