Getty Research Institute

The Getty Research Institute (GRI) is dedicated to the study of the visual arts, approaching the topic from broad historical and cultural perspectives. The GRI's goals are to promote innovative scholarship in the arts and humanities, to bridge traditional academic boundaries, and to provide a unique environment for research, critical inquiry, and debate. The GRI is an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, an international cultural and philanthropic organization serving both general audiences and specialized professionals. The Trust is a not-for-profit institution, educational in purpose and character, that focuses on the visual arts in all of their dimensions. As of 2009 the Trust supports and oversees four programs: the J. Paul Getty Museum; the Getty Foundation; the Getty Conservation Institute; and the Getty Research Institute.

The Getty Research Institute grew out of the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities (GCHAH), which was established to advance and disseminate research in the history of art and the humanities. The GCHAH was one of the original programs established by the J. Paul Getty Trust. In 1981 the Trust began a year of exploration to determine where it would focus its resources and energies in order to make the greatest possible contribution to the field of art and art history as a whole. In 1982, following extensive international deliberations with knowledgeable individuals, the trustees made commitments to three new entities, a Conservation Institute, a Center for Education in the Arts, and a Center for the History of Art and the Humanities (GCHAH).

From its inception the objective of the GCHAH was to foster advanced research in art, its history, diversity, and meaning in our culture and to do so by engaging scholars from various disciplines in the humanities. The proposed center was to include a residence program for scholars, a major expansion of the library, a modest publications program, and an art photo archive. The activities of the center were also to focus on preserving historic materials in the field of art history and the development of new reference tools for the field, using the latest in information technologies. The plan was approved, and in July 1983 the program known as the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities opened in Santa Monica, California.

The GCHAH progressed quickly toward fulfilling its objectives during its first few years. The first director, architectural historian Kurt Forster, added the Archives of the History of Art to the GCHAH in an effort to create a premier repository for manuscript collections related to artists and the field of art history. Not only did the archives serve as a repository for materials related to art history, but it also housed the historical records of the J. Paul Getty Trust and its Museum. In the fall of 1985 the GCHAH launched the Visiting Scholar Program, inviting 17 scholars to explore the theme “Aesthetic Experience and Affinities Among the Arts.”

Due to expanded operations and limited space at the original J. Paul Getty Museum in Pacific Palisades, California, the various programs of the J. Paul Getty Trust were located at different sites throughout the Los Angeles basin during the 1980s and early 1990s. The Trust's vision was to bring together most of their programs at a single site; until that vision became a reality, the GCHAH was located in the First Federal Building at 401 Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica. Meanwhile, the Getty Center in nearby Brentwood was under construction. In 1996, in order to avoid confusion with the soon-to-open Getty Center in Brentwood, the GCHAH was renamed the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities. The Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities moved to the Getty Center in I997. In 2000 the program's name was shortened to the Getty Research Institute (GRI). The GRI occupies a round, five-level building at the Getty Center that includes an exhibition gallery, a lecture hall, meeting facilities, offices for staff and scholars, and the Research Library.

The GRI's Research Library, one of the largest art libraries in the world, is accessible to both on-site and remote users and supports scholars and researchers around the world. The library's Special Collections department contains rare books and unique materials, such as drawings, personal papers, unpublished manuscripts, journals, letters, video art, architectural drawings and models, and other primary sources. The general library collection contains over a million secondary sources, focusing on the histories of art, architecture, and archaeology from pre-history to contemporary times. Additionally, the Research Library maintains numerous online databases, which serve global communities of librarians, historians, and museum professionals; a Photo Study Collection, which contains over two million photographs of art and architecture; and the Getty's Institutional Archives, which maintains records of enduring value related to the founding and development of the Trust and its programs.

In addition to supporting the Research Library, the GRI's role includes several other significant activities. Through its residential Scholar Program the GRI brings together an international group of artists, composers, architects, filmmakers, writers, and academics to exchange ideas while pursuing their own projects. Since the library's materials are often handled during scholarly research, and thereby exposed to light, air, physical movement, and human contact, the GRI maintains an expert conservation team that works to restore and preserve the Research Library's unique holdings. Beyond the residential Scholar Program and Research Library, the GRI advances research in the visual arts through its publications. The Getty Research Institute also promotes a broader understanding of the arts and reaches a more diverse audience through its public programs, which include workshops, conferences, lectures, performances, film screenings, and exhibitions.