The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 6 — The Arts might have a chance!
The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 1 – Arrival
The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 2 – The Buildings
The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 3 — The Gardens
The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 4 — The Clocks
The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 5 — The Paintings
The State of California is still broke, which means that the very thing this nation needs most is the thing that gets cut first — Education.
When I graduated from Texas A&M University and moved to Houston in the late 1970s, my home state of Texas announced that it had a $6 billion surplus for the current fiscal year. I was thinking, “Yeah! They are going to refund us some money like Alaska does.” Nope. They just went out and looked for more stuff to spend it on. (Why don’t governments and corporations have savings accounts for rainy days years? Or endowment funds like colleges and universities have?)
Anyway, Texas succeeded in spending the surplus, and about ten years later, when the Texas oil boom went bust, Texas announced that it was broke. Possibly implementing a state income tax caused an uproar that was not seen again until a black person was elected President of the United States. Property taxes and sales taxes skyrocketed.
My hometown in Texas cut all of the arts programs in its public schools — no painting, no choir, no band, no orchestra. Gone, gone, gone. I do not know if those subjects were ever implemented again when things improved.
With the current situation in California, school budgets are still getting slashed, and the first programs that went were the arts. Many of them are now after-school extracurricular activities. Some teachers are unpaid volunteers from the community. That’s why what I saw at The Getty Center gave me hope for the Arts:
That’s not just some random art student visiting The Getty Center and doing a sketch. See the sketch to his left? That other sketch is not his. It was done by yet another person. Now you’re probably thinking “art class.” Nope.
This area of the Center is The Sketching Gallery. There were four large paintings and a couple of sculptures in the room with several sketching seats like the one the guy in the picture is using. Anyone — even me! — could sit down and sketch. No, I didn’t. Lots of people did. Even more wonderful is the sketch board where budding artists could leave their sketch on display:
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one visualizing a young artist proudly placing his sketch on the sketch board while his equally proud parents take a picture.
I had never seen a Sketching Gallery before but apparently they have a long tradition in the art world. Explained on a mural in the Gallery (see cropped second and third pictures to read the text):
If one has not been to The Sketching Gallery before, a mural on the wall provides instructions:
Although the Gardens were my favorite part of The Getty Center, I think The Sketching Gallery was my favorite experience.
The Arts might have a chance in this world after all!
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Posted on July 22, 2012, in History, Manmade, Out & About, Photos and tagged getty center los angeles pictures, getty center pictures. Bookmark the permalink. 14 Comments.
it is odd how the most important things are cut first
love the sketching area
I loved the idea of the sketching area!
Oh, you are so right. Money cuts the soul out of everything that is vital.
As a young girl I sat in a huge room at the Norton Gallery and School of Art. I looked for hours at wonderful paintings asking myself ” How did they do that” Then I went home, pulled out the paints and tried. Next taking my work to the gallery and trying to figure out where I went wrong or the next step to getting better. I was determined and had the best teachers in the world: All of the masters! That’s how I learned and I am still learning!
Yeeha!
I don’t understand how the arts can be considered a non-essential! They are a valuable exploration of our world…no less so than the sciences. In my opinion, these could be viewed as two sides of the same coin…just sayin’. Thanks for talking about this!
I totally agree. I think that people who have not studied the arts are less likely to see the beauty of the world we live in and what it can offer us.
And that’s the Truth! (as Lily Tomlin’s Edith Ann used to tell us!)
I’d be willing to bet that James Holmes’s education right here in San Diego did not include any arts. He might have been a “brainiac” as his neighbors say, and from a “church-going family,” but for some reason he couldn’t see beauty.
The thing is that the arts contribute way more than an appreciation of beauty to our lives. They help us work through concepts, give us a platform for problem solving, a way to express inspiration. These, in my opinion, are life skills! Appreciation of beauty is the icing on an already rich cake!
Excellent points!
I love it! What a wonderful idea!
But cutting these kinds of programs in schools? Tragic. Really, really tragic.
A fabulous way to express your creativity and to share with others in the museum. I agree with you, the garden and sketching room would be my favorites too.
Dot
I have never seen or heard of a sketching gallery before what a great idea. You should have done a sketch and hung it for all to see.
Ha!. A sketcher I’m not. I can’t even sketch a stick figure for “Hangman.”