Every picture tells a story; creepy crawly art; dour or dignified?

Learning the art of conservation

Go behind the scenes at a hands-on photo conservation workshop just for students of historically Black colleges and universities. Participants viewed materials from the Johnson Publishing Company archive—photographs from Jet and Ebony magazines—and then created documentation for the archive, rehoused slides, and cleaned and repaired photographs.

Meet the participants and experience the workshop

Can dead animals be art?

Have you seen the towering bronze vase by Jean-Désiré Ringel d’Illzach at the Getty Center? The sculptor used real dead animals and insects, such as bats and spiders, to create molds for the work’s embellishments. In 1893 a French critic noted, “Monsieur Ringel understands his art in the manner of Edgar Allan Poe.”

It’s covered in bats and spiders and straight out of your nightmares

Say prunes!

Why don’t people smile in old photographs? Well, for one, centuries-strong social mores dictated that smiling widely and showing your teeth wasn’t a good look for anyone who wanted to be considered a serious person. Meanwhile a broad grin was associated with lewdness, lunacy, and drunkenness, and a softer, come-hither smile was a staple of early photographic erotica.

The surprising history of the smile—or lack of it—in early photographs

10 songs that have defined the Americas

Hear a selection of songs from the 1960s to the present—in the genres of pop, salsa, reggaeton, hip-hop, and punk rock. Each track reveals how musicians and composers have contributed to the many reinventions of the Americas, sometimes repeating stereotypes and other times challenging them and bringing new sounds, lyrics, and genres to create a rich universe of music.

From salsa to punk rock, music that keeps reinventing ideas about the continents

LA Activism: The Institute of Cultural Inquiry’s AIDS Chronicles (1994–2019)

Tuesday, October 17, 12:00–1:00 pm PT
Online only

In partnership with Circa: Queer Histories Festival, artist Antoinette LaFarge and curator Deborah Cullen-Morales join Getty curator Pietro Rigolo to discuss the Institute of Cultural Inquiry, an artist-run space once active in LA. This panel will highlight a lesser-known story of activism and solidarity amidst the HIV/AIDS epidemic in LA.

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Art Break: Don’t Judge. Designing Book Covers

Friday, October 20, 12:00 pm PT
Online only

Of course we judge books by their covers. And so curator Larisa Grollemond and renowned graphic designer and art director Charlotte Strick explore color, typography, and composition, as well as the many stylistic influences at play for 21st-century book cover designers versus their medieval artisan predecessors.

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Mercedes Dorame on Creation and Collaboration

Sunday, October 29, 3:00 pm
The Getty Center and online

When Tongva artist Mercedes Dorame created her Getty installation Woshaa’axre Yaang’aro (Looking Back), she wanted to “immerse the viewer in the realm of abalone, creating a sense of kinship, reciprocity and balance with the natural world.” Dorame joins Richard Rand, associate director of collections, and Michael Mitchell, head of preparations, to discuss the collaborative creation and installation of her artwork.

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