Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 14:49:08 -0400
From: Susanne Warren <warre...@together.net>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en] (Win95; I)
Mime-Version: 1.0
To: mc...@world.std.com
Subject: Reorganization at the Getty??? Getty Information Institute in
jeopardy????
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Mime-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by mx01.together.net id
OAA21526
Subject:
Reorganization at the Getty??? Getty Information Institute in
jeopardy????
Date:
Tue, 11 Aug 1998 07:53:23 -0700
From:
"Christine L. Sundt" <csu...@oregon.uoregon.edu>
To:
vr...@uafsysb.uark.edu, arli...@lsv.uky.edu,
c...@pucc.princeton.edu,
image...@listserv.arizona.edu, Gary Schwartz
<gary.d.schwa...@let.uu.nl>,
helene.robe...@dartmouth.edu, sb...@collegeart.org,
ela...@together.net,
mala...@pucc.princeton.edu
Rumor has it that the Getty Information Institute is being dismantled.
In
the process of overhauling the Getty, major programs and institutes are
apparently being "reorganized." The consequences of this action could
be
enormous for us especially if the Information Institute projects and
their
staffs, including but not limited to the AAT, ULAN, and TGN that have
brought so many benefits to the arts, visual resources, and cultural
heritage organizations in recent years are cut. From what I've heard,
this
seems likely.
If you are as troubled by these rumors as I am, this is probably a good
time to react (see below for some of my own thoughts). Maybe the best
place to start a write-in campaign is with those at the top: the Getty's
President and the Board of Trustees. I've found a list of names at the
Getty's website (http://www.getty.edu/grant/view2.html#boa) but without
contact information for the board members. With a little more searching
I
found some information about a few of the board members with
affiliations
and some addresses. Here's what I have so far.
Dr. Barry Munitz
President and CEO, J. Paul Getty Trust
1200 Getty Center Drive
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1681
THE J. PAUL GETTY TRUST BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Robert F. Erburu (http://www.whittier.edu/comm/rls.Erburu.html)
Chairman
Barry Munitz (http://www.gii.getty.edu/newpress/newceo.html)
President and Chief Executive Officer
Other members of the board:
John F. Cooke (http://cavern.uark.edu/~niiac/members/cooke.html)
Ramon C. Cortines
(
http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/ArtsEdNet/Browsing/97conf/Bios/cortines.ht=
ml
)
David I. Fisher
David P. Gardner (President, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
525
Middlefield Rd., Suite 200, Menlo Park, CA 94025, Tel: (415)392-1070
(from
http://www.ned.org/page_4/funding/fundlist.html)
Gordon P. Getty
Vartan Gregorian
(http://cgi-user.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/1996-97/96-060gc.ht=
ml
)
Agnes Gund (http://www.govpataki4women.org/aGund.html)
Helene L. Kaplan (from http://www.carnegie.org/science_tech/reg.txt):
Helene L. Kaplan, Of Counsel, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom,
serves
as counsel or trustee of many science, arts, charitable, and educational
institutions. She chairs the Board of Trustees of Barnard College and is
treasurer of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Former
chairman of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Corporation of New York,
Mrs.
Kaplan currently serves as a trustee of that foundation, as well as
trustee
of the American Museum of Natural History; Committee on Economic
Development; Commonwealth Fund; J. Paul Getty Trust; John Simon
Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation; Institute for Advanced Study; and Mount Sinai
Hospital, Medical School and Medical Center. From 1985 to 1987, she was
a
member of the U.S. Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on South
Africa;
and from 1986 to 1990, she served as a member of New York Governor
Cuomo's
Task Force on Life and the Law, concerned with the legal and ethical
implications of advances in medical technology. Mrs. Kaplan is a
director
of Chemical Banking Corporation and Chemical Bank, The May Department
Stores Company, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Mobil Corporation,
and
NYNEX Corporation. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign
Relations. She is a graduate of Barnard College and New York University
Law
School, and is the recipient of an honorary doctorate of laws from
Columbia
University.)
Herbert L. Lucas, Jr.
Stuart T. Peeler
J. Patrick Whaley
Harold M. Williams (former President and CEO of the Getty)
Blenda J. Wilson
(http://www.co.calstate.edu/PublicAffairs/csubio/prezbio/Wilson.html)
Ira E.Yellin (http://www.catellus.com/html/ira_e._yellin.htm)
>From my perspective as a VR curator, I think the Getty president and
the
members of the board should be aware that:
=B7 The Information Institute is a vital element of the Getty
superstructure
that must be continued and even enhanced -- not dismantled, not cut.
=B7 The work of the Information Institute has contributed greatly to the
Getty's good name and reputation both nationally and internationally.
At
the same time the Information Institute has been an effective
collaborator
and facilitator in new initiatives with many positive consequences.
=B7 The loss of the Information Institute and its effective leadership an=
d
programs/projects will be felt widely in many fields and disciplines.
=B7 The Information Institute's tools -- the Art and Architecture
Thesaurus,
the Union List of Artists Names and the Thesaurus of Geographic Names --
have been an incredible contribution to the work of many in hundreds of
organizations. Many of us use these daily! maybe even hourly!
=B7 The loss of support for these and for the development of future
information tools will be an enormous setback for those of us engaged in
projects that involve emerging technologies in challenging though
seminal
projects where funding is otherwise unavailable to carry this work
forward.
=B7 At best we should be seeing increased support for the expansion of th=
e
Information Institute's tools instead of their abandonment.
I could go on=85 I'm sure you can think of many more reasons. Art
history
without the Getty (remember the Information Institute's previous name:
The Art History Information Program!) is a sobering thought.
If you have any other information or ideas about this rumor or how we
should react, please let us hear from you.
Christine Sundt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christine L. Sundt
Visual Resources Curator
Architecture & Allied Arts Library
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403 - USA
541-346-2209 / FAX: 541-346-2205
http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/index.htm
--
