Launched in the wake of Los Angeles’s civil unrest in 1992, the Multicultural Undergraduate Internship program seeks to increase diversity within the staffs of museums and visual arts organizations by offering paid internships to outstanding students of diverse backgrounds who either live or attend college in Los Angeles County. Over the past 20 years, the Getty has provided over 2,700 internships to 150 local arts organizations.
“Our intention in creating the internship program was to introduce students from underrepresented communities to potential careers in the visual arts,” said Deborah Marrow, director of the Getty Foundation. “Two decades into this effort, a number of program alumni have assumed leadership positions in museums and other cultural organizations, and in fact some are now mentoring the next generation of interns.”
“My summer at Visual Communications in 1993 as part of the first Getty intern class provided pivotal moments for me and my career,” said Leslie Ito, who subsequently rose to the level of executive director at her host organization before moving on to her present role as program officer in the arts at the California Community Foundation. “I look back on that experience and remember to always encourage the next generation of leaders.”
Another alumnus is Edgar Garcia, who served as an intern for the Los Angeles Conservancy in 1999 and now works as a preservation planner in the City of Los Angeles’s Office of Historic Resources where he supervises interns.
“Participation in the Getty’s program has been the single most influential experience in shaping my career in historic preservation and arts management," says Garcia.
Ito and Garcia are among many alumni from the program have gone on to find permanent work in the arts, and the majority of them credit the Getty’s program with providing that critical first step.
More recently, encouraged by her experience as a Getty intern at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) last summer, Luisa Aguilar Solis applied for a job with the organization.
“Three months after my Getty internship was over, I was hired by the museum as an image coordinator. I feel like without the actual internship experience it would not have been as easy to take on the tasks I have to do daily,” said Aguilar Solis.
The students are not the only ones who benefit from the program. For many of the arts organizations, the interns provide much-needed staffing each summer, as well as access to some valuable perspectives.
“The interns know a lot. They understand social networking and what’s going on with other young people,” said Jeanne Hoel, Senior Education Program Manager at MOCA. “Having them here is a very positive experience for everyone involved.”
In its 20th year, the Multicultural Undergraduate Internship Program continues to achieve remarkable milestones—it is one of the few long-term programs of its kind, and it has had a tangible impact in helping people of diverse backgrounds delve into careers in the arts. The program‘s success also inspired a public-private partnership when the Los Angeles County Arts Commission joined the Getty by creating an undergraduate intern program focused on the performing and literary arts in 2000.
In addition to 12 positions offered at the Getty, this summer’s Multicultural Undergraduate Interns will be hosted by the following non-profit institutions:
- A+D Architecture and Design Museum, Los Angeles
- American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona
- Angels Gate Cultural Center, Inc., San Pedro
- Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center Inc., Los Angeles
- Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena
- Art Center College of Design, Pasadena
- Arts and Services for Disabled, Inc., Long Beach
- Association for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts & Culture, Los Angeles
- Autry National Center of the American West, Los Angeles
- California African-American Museum, Los Angeles
- California State Parks, Will Rogers State Historic Park
- California Institute of the Arts, Valencia
- Catalina Island Museum, Avalon
- Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles
- Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA
- Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles
- Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles
- Department of Cultural Affairs, Public Arts Division of the City of Los Angeles
- 18th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica
- El Pueblo Park Association, Los Angeles
- Fowler Museum, UCLA
- Friends of Banning Park Corporation, Banning Residence Museum, Wilmington
- HeArt Project, Los Angeles
- Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino
- Historic Italian Hall Foundation, Los Angeles
- Immaculate Heart Community, Corita Art Center, Los Angeles
- Inner-City Arts, Los Angeles
- Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Los Angeles
- Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles
- LA Freewaves, Los Angeles
- LAXART, Los Angeles
- Library Foundation of Los Angeles
- Long Beach Museum of Art Foundation
- Los Angeles Conservancy
- Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Inc.
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- Los Angeles Harbor Department Historical Archives, City of Los Angeles
- Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery Associates
- Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
- Machine Project, Los Angeles
- MAK Center for Art and Architecture, West Hollywood
- Millard Sheets Gallery, Pomona
- The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
- The Museum of Jurassic Technology, Culver City
- Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach
- Office of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles
- Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles
- P.S. Arts, Los Angeles
- Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena
- Pasadena Heritage
- Pasadena Museum of California Art
- Plaza de la Raza, Incorporated, Los Angeles
- Pomona College Museum of Art
- Public Corporation for the Arts of the City of Long Beach
- Rancho Los Cerritos Foundation, Inc., Long Beach
- Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont
- Ryman Carroll Foundation, Los Angeles
- St. Elmo Village, Los Angeles
- Santa Monica Museum of Art
- Scripps College, Claremont
- Self-Help Graphics, Los Angeles
- Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles
- Social and Public Art Resource Center, Venice
- Tierra del Sol Center for the Handicapped Foundation, Claremont
- Torrance Art Museum of the City of Torrance
- University Art Museum, California State University Long Beach
- Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles
- Venice Arts: In Neighborhoods
- Vincent Price Art Gallery Foundation, Monterey Park
- Visual Communications, Los Angeles
- Wende Museum, Culver City
- William S. Hart Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation