The Getty Center

Much More than a Museum - It’s an Experience

Photographer Carleton Watkins’ Exhibit is Timely for Children Studying California History

The stunning view of Los Angeles is just the beginning of your family’s Getty Center experience that promises to be both visual and visceral. Once inside the J. Paul Getty Museum, you’ll enhance your time together as a family as you take advantage of the numerous family activities that allow you to enjoy and learn together about the many works of art at the Getty. With the current challenge of our economic times, visitors will be happy to learn that admission to the Getty Center is free, and no reservations are required.

Designed by architect Richard Meier, the Getty Center houses the world renowned J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation. It is situated high in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains above the 405 Freeway. Eighty-six acres of magnificent landscaped gardens and terraces, including the Central Garden designed by artist Robert Irwin, provide sweeping views of the mountains, the ocean, the Los Angeles basin, and the surrounding 600 acres preserved in their natural state.

In a time of energy and environmental concern, the Getty Center is distinguished by its Silver-level LEED® (Leadership in Energy & Environment Design) Certification earned from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED certification recognizes the Getty Center’s efforts to reduce waste and energy use throughout the facility. One of the very first examples visitors will see of this commitment are the driverless, computer-operated trams used to transport visitors three-quarters of a mile along a winding, tree-lined route from the parking area up to the Arrival Plaza. The trams are emission-free and glide on a cushion of air generated by electric blowers. Another demonstration of the Getty’s environmental care occurs each spring when a herd of goats is hired to help clear brush and reduce fire danger on the hillside.

Inspired by the diverse interplay of the Los Angeles landscape, architect Richard Meier sought to design the Getty’s modernist complex so that it highlights both nature and culture. With Italian travertine and off-white, enamel-coated aluminum panels throughout the Center, it possesses a bright openness and horizontality reminiscent of such Southern California modernists as Rudolf Schindler, Richard Neutra, and Frank Lloyd Wright, while its curvilinear elements may call to mind the Baroque. The travertine, quarried in Italy for the Getty Center, is believed to have formed between 8,000 and 80,000 years ago. In the process, organic matter—leaves, branches, fish, even a deer antler—was trapped in the rock. The fossilized remains are visible today on many of the rough-cut wall tiles.

Central Garden

Robert Irwin’s 134,000-square-foot Central Garden was commissioned by the Getty Trust as a work of art. The garden offers visitors constantly changing experiences determined by the weather, the hour of day, the time of year, and the use of seasonal plants. All of the foliage and elements of the garden have been selected to accentuate the relationships of light, color, and reflection. While Irwin’s plan for the garden sprang from the powerful, controlled geometries of the architecture and from the site itself, he conceived the garden as a “conditional” work of art. In contrast to the more static nature of the buildings, the Central Garden is always in flux.

The Museum

Five two-story pavilions, clustered around an open courtyard, house changing exhibitions and the J. Paul Getty Museum’s expanding permanent collections of pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, decorative arts, and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs. Gallery talks, lectures, films, concerts, lively family programs, interactive media, and art demonstrations all enrich the visitor experience of the collection.

Family Fun at the Getty Center

The Getty Center offers many opportunities for families to enjoy art together. The Family Fun at the Getty brochure, available at the Museum Information Desk and the Family Cart in the Museum Courtyard, offers ideas, tips, and clues to make every family's visit an adventure. The Getty Guide Family Tour, designed for families to enjoy together, makes art come alive for kids. Hear stories, music, and sounds inspired by 19 objects in the collection. Getty Guide Audio Players are available for $5 at the Pick-Up Desk in the Museum Entrance Hall.

Open every day in the Museum Courtyard by the East Pavilion, the Family Room is a place for children of all ages and their parents to discover together a world of wonders, delights, and hands-on activities. Featuring five activity coves and treasure-hunt walls that surround the room, it's bursting with cool things to see and do. Decorate a giant illuminated manuscript. Build a tube sculpture, take part in a parade scene in a painting, or play with camera lenses and a wall of mirrors. Tired? Relax and read on a luxurious bed just like an 18th-century French aristocrat.

Find the art and solve the mystery with Art Detective Cards designed for families to use while exploring the galleries, garden, and architecture. Cards are available every day outside the Family Room and at the Family Cart in the Museum Courtyard.

Get up close and personal with a single work of art at Family Art Stops, a 30 minute, hands-on gallery experience geared for families with children ages five and up. A gallery educator leads tours to a family-friendly work of art -- perhaps a Renaissance oil painting, a 45-foot-tall steel sculpture, or an opulent tapestry adorned with scampering exotic animals. Families learn together as they participate in fun activities such as puzzles, drawing projects, role-plays, even an artistic version of Mad Libs. Activities and works of art change frequently, making each visit a new experience. Family Art Stops are offered Saturday and Sunday afternoons year round and are free of charge. Space is limited. Sign up at the Museum Information Desk beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Dining Choices

Visitors to the Getty Center enjoy a number of dining options, both indoors and out, with a range of menus and prices. The lovely Southern California sunshine is a perfect opportunity to enjoy a picnic on the lawn near the Central Garden. Bring your own picnic or purchase a family-friendly to go lunch from the Garden Terrace Café. Prices range from $6 to $8. For those preferring indoor dining, try the Café or the Restaurant at the Getty Center. The Café offers a variety of entrees, including international cuisine, grill items, seafood, special salads, pizza and sandwiches, along with beer and wine. Prices range from $4 - $8. The Restaurant features one of the best views in Los Angeles and offers a fine dining menu for lunch and dinner, using the freshest and best ingredients. A distinctive wine list and full bar are also available. Prices range from $8 to $18 for lunch and $20 to $32 for dinner.

Exhibition Showcases the Work of Pioneering American Photographer Carleton Watkins

For California history or photography enthusiasts or children studying California history in school, Dialogue among Giants is a must see. On view at the J. Paul Getty Museum in the Getty Center through March 1, 2009, this exhibit presents the work of San Francisco-based photographer Carleton Watkins and the birth and early evolution of photography in California.

“His photographs were as perceptive as the words of a poet and they provide a unique personal vision of the birth and growth of California,” says Weston Naef, senior curator in the Getty Museum’s Department of Photographs.

Organized thematically, the exhibition includes mammoth plate photographs Watkins made in Yosemite at the height of his career, panoramas of San Francisco, and photographs he made along the Pacific Coast and in Southern California. The exhibition also investigates Watkins’s previously unknown early career as a daguerreotypist (an early photographic process in which an image was produced on a light-sensitive silver or silver-coated plate and developed in mercury vapor), finding the roots of his artistic vision in California’s Gold Rush era.

Watkins made thousands of pictures in a career from about 1850, when he arrived in California, to the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed his San Francisco studio and all his glass negatives. During that time, he achieved international fame for his Yosemite photographs, which he created using the largest available camera, one designed to expose mammoth plate negatives. Applying a remarkably innovative visual sense, Watkins traveled the western United States, making historically significant photographs of its mountains, coastline, vast natural resources, and burgeoning cities.

The Getty Villa: A Classic Destination

Although space limitations don’t permit us to go into extensive detail about the Getty Villa, located in Malibu, we want to give you a quick overview so that you’ll be encouraged to visit this magnificent destination. Bordered by coastal mountains and the Pacific Ocean, the Getty Villa evokes the classical world in both its landscape and architecture. Modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, a first-century Roman country house, the Villa is an airy, sunlit, environment, featuring mosaic floors and colorful trompe l’oeil walls and paintings. Its four gardens and grounds are planted with species known from the ancient Mediterranean, creating lush and fragrant places to stroll.

The Getty Villa houses the J. Paul Getty Museum’s extensive collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities, which comprises about 44,000 objects. It offers an incomparable setting for the study and enjoyment of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The Villa weaves together art, performances, family activities, theater, conservation, and other activities to create an integrated educational and cultural experience for all ages.

An extraordinary opportunity awaits families to have fun learning about the arts and cultures of the ancient world. Kids and parents can thrill to the adventures of Hercules at the foot of an ancient Roman statue of the hero, learn tales of classical mythology before a statue of Zeus, discover the history of the Olympic games while viewing a precious bronze statue of a victorious athlete, and learn about the lives of children in ancient society through vases and other everyday objects. There’s even a mummy!

Admission to the Getty Villa is always free! An advance, timed ticket is required and can be obtained at getty.edu or by phone at 310.440.7300. For more detail about the Getty Villa, visit getty.edu.