J. Paul Getty Trust. Communications Department

Administrative History

The Trust's origins date to 1953, when J. Paul Getty established the J. Paul Getty Museum as a California charitable trust to house his growing art collections. Originally a small, private institution located in Mr. Getty's ranch house in Malibu, the museum moved to the newly constructed Villa in grounds adjacent to the ranch house in 1974. When most of Mr. Getty's personal estate passed to the Trust in 1982, the Trustees decided that, given the size of the endowment, it should make a greater contribution to the visual arts and humanities than the museum could alone. Out of this resolve grew an expanded commitment to the arts in the general areas of scholarship, conservation, and education. This took the shape of new programs including the Center for the History of Arts and Humanities, Art History Information Institute, Conservation Institute, and Center for Education in the Arts as well as smaller programs such as the Museum Management Institute and Program for Art on Film. In 1983 the trust's name was changed from the J. Paul Getty Museum to the J. Paul Getty Trust to reflect its broader scope, with the museum becoming an operating program of the Trust.

Although press releases were issued by the J. Paul Getty Museum dating back to 1954, press release production was not officially institutionalized until 1974 with the appointment of a Public Affairs Director. Although the name of the department went through subsequent iterations, from 1979-1997 museum press releases were consistently rendered as issuing from "Public Information."

Concurrently, the Department of Public Affairs was created in 1983 to issue press releases on behalf of the J. Paul Getty Trust and its newly created programs. In 1997, the Public Information department ceased and the dissemination of press releases was centralized under the auspices of the Trust's Department of Public Affairs. In 2000, this name was changed to the Communications Department.

Prior to 1983, press clippings were predominantly collected by Stephen Garrett and other individuals within the J. Paul Getty Museum. After 1983, collecting and dissemination became the responsibility of the various incarnations of what is now the Communications Department.

From the guide to the Press relations records, 1954-2007, (The Getty Research Institute Institutional Records and Archives 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688 (310) 440-7390 archives@getty.edu)