Getty Research Institute. Dept. of Research and Education.

The concept of the Scholar Program originated with Harold William's appointment as the first President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1981. Harold Williams and his team of advisors made several proposals to the Board of Trustees for potential programs that would further the Getty's mission of "the diffusion of artistic and general knowledge." The establishment of an arts library had already been proposed as early as 1977 by then Museum Director Stephen Garrett, when in February 1982 Williams' chief deputy Nancy Englander outlined a proposed "Center for Advanced Study." This proposed center would include a residence program for scholars, a major expansion of the library, a limited publications program, and an art photo archive. The center would focus on the preservation of historic art history materials and the development of new art history reference tools using state-of-the-art information technology. The plan was approved and the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities (GCHAH) opened in temporary quarters in the First Federal Building at 401 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica, in July 1983.

Noted architectural historian Kurt Forster began work as the first director of the GCHAH in the fall of 1984. One of the original departments in the GCHAH was the Visiting Scholars and Conferences department, headed by Herb Hymans, and it was this department that inaugurated the Scholar Program in the fall of 1985. The program's first participants comprised 17 scholars and Getty fellows exploring the theme "Aesthetic Experience and Affinities Among the Arts." Since that first year, the number of scholars has fluctuated between 20 and 30, but the treatment and consideration of a specific theme has remained a constant. In addition to hosting the Scholar Program, the Visiting Scholars and Conferences department was also responsible for organizing scholarly activities, events, and conferences, a responsibility that migrated back and forth to other departments over the years. Despite these changes, the Scholar Program remained the responsibility of the Visiting Scholars and Conferences department, which was renamed the Scholars and Seminars Program (unknown date), then the Department of Research and Education around 2000. The Research and Education department currently still hosts the Scholar Program.

Kurt Forster left the GCHAH in June 1992, and Tom Reese was promoted to acting director while the Trust conducted a search for a new director. Salvatore Settis, a 1988-1989 Getty Scholar and professor of classical art and archaeology from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, became director of the GCHAH in January 1994. In 1996, in order to avoid confusion with the soon-to-be opened Getty Center in Brentwood, the GCHAH was renamed the Getty Research Institute for the History of Arts and the Humanities; three years later, this name was shortened to simply the Getty Research Institute (GRI). In 2000, Thomas Crow succeeded Salvatore Settis as director of the GRI. In 2007, Thomas W. Gaehtgens succeeded Thomas Crow.