Getty Foundation

Activities and grant programs

The foundation supports a broad range of activities through targeted grant programs, open competitions, multi‑year initiatives, and partnerships. Its awards reach museums, archives, libraries, universities, independent scholars, conservation laboratories, and regional cultural organizations.

• Conservation and preservation: grants for surveys, conservation treatments, preventive care, and technical research to extend the life of artworks and historic structures.
• Research and access: support for cataloguing, digitization, scholarly projects, and publication to increase public and scholarly access to collections and documentation.
• Capacity building and leadership: funding for institutional planning, professional development, leadership training, and programs that strengthen museum governance and operations.
• Partnerships and international initiatives: collaborative projects that foster shared expertise, cross‑institution networks, and support for cultural heritage in different regions.

History and notable initiatives

The Getty Foundation grew from the philanthropic work of the J. Paul Getty Trust and has evolved to address changing needs in the cultural sector. It has supported major, widely recognized initiatives such as the Pacific Standard Time series, a collaborative effort that documented and spotlighted Los Angeles art history, and the Keeping It Modern program, which focused on modern architecture conservation. The foundation previously funded the Getty Leadership Institute, a professional development program for museum leaders that later relocated to Claremont Graduate University. The foundation has at times operated with multi‑million‑dollar annual budgets; a reported budget for 2006–07 was $27.8 million.

Application, selection and impact

Grant opportunities are typically announced through public calls or by invitation; proposals are reviewed by panels of specialists and evaluated for their cultural benefit, feasibility, and potential for broader impact. Recipients often use Getty funding to carry out treatments and documentation that would otherwise be difficult to finance, to digitize collections for public use, to develop long‑term institutional plans, and to build professional expertise. Through these investments the foundation seeks to strengthen the ability of cultural institutions to conserve and share visual culture with diverse audiences.

Governance and funding

As a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, the foundation is part of a larger philanthropic organization that includes research and conservation entities. Its grantmaking is supported by the Trust's endowment and is governed by policies intended to ensure transparency, peer review, and alignment with broader preservation and scholarship goals.