Insights for the Field

Overall this impact report offers insights for the Getty Foundation’s ongoing work to diversify the arts workforce as well as for arts organizations, museums, and foundations involved in these efforts. This concluding section shares several lessons learned based on nearly three decades of experience with the largest visual arts internship program in the country as well as considerations for the future.

Lessons Learned

1. Make a long-term commitment, define success at the outset, and evaluate outcomes

When the Getty Marrow internship program was created in 1993, Getty understood that real change would take time. The program is now the longest-running initiative in the Getty Foundation’s 36-year history. While programming has changed and evolved over the years, and staff has come and gone, the core elements have been constant: the large scale of the undertaking with arts organizations across Los Angeles County, paid internships of a meaningful length of time, substantive projects, and dedicated supervisors and host institutions.

The Getty Marrow internships predated a wider turn to strategic philanthropy that is now a common practice among grantmakers. Even though Getty staff engaged in thoughtful dialogue with stakeholders to develop the internship program, no specific metrics of success were defined at the outset, no baseline data was collected about staff demographics at participating organizations, and no formal evaluation plan was put in place. Foundation staff conducted site visits each year, students completed post-internship surveys, and an informal alumni survey took place in 1995, yet the first formal outside evaluation did not occur until 2007. Without explicit goals at the outset, it has been more challenging to measure success. Going forward, Getty will be looking at the question of defining goals and corresponding evaluation measures.

Given the increasing number of diversity internship programs in the arts created across the country in just the last five years, arts organizations and the broader philanthropic community now have an opportunity to define metrics of success with greater intention, evaluate outcomes more consistently, and share results with each other and the field as a whole.

2. Count on continued alumni engagement and interest in the arts

Nearly 30 years later, those who originated the Getty Marrow program would be gratified to know that nearly one in three interns work in a museum or arts nonprofit, and that the internship program has stimulated ongoing attendance at museums and visual arts organizations among 80% of its participants. Alumni are some of the program’s greatest advocates, and many current supervisors are former interns. The most recent survey results and interviews indicate that a growing number of alumni now established in their careers would welcome the opportunity to serve as mentors for early-career professionals. Getty plans to enlist these alumni in exploring new opportunities for inclusive mentorship.

3. Early-career alumni may need additional support to establish careers

Report findings as well as the most recent follow-up survey to assess the impact of COVID-19 suggest that alumni careers are, not surprisingly, most precarious in the early years. Survey data do not indicate whether this causes alumni to leave the field, although results do point to a much higher incidence of part-time work in the early years and increasing job turnover. The likely impact of the pandemic on employment prospects for early-career alumni and for those just entering the field suggests a potential increased vulnerability. If these initial findings are borne out, early-career support, from mentoring to grant-funded positions, may be needed to keep emerging talent in the field.

4. Pay attention to where emerging leaders are working

As indicated in the report findings, over half of Getty Marrow alumni working in the field surveyed in 2019 reported that they have progressed or are able to progress in their organizations to positions of increased seniority. Of those working in the arts, 5% of alumni self-identified as executives and 16% as senior staff/department heads. Getty has observed that many alumni in leadership positions work in small and midsize community-based arts organizations rather than large museums. These smaller organizations may have greater readiness to embrace institutional change—a trend that deserves further investigation.

Considerations for the Future

While internship programs like Getty’s can have an appreciable impact on diversifying the staff of museums and visual arts organizations, they are not enough to solve the longstanding and persistent problems of racism and inequity in cultural institutions. Alumni interviews consistently cited three key challenges to careers in the arts: low pay, lack of diversity, and limited job opportunities. As one alum working in the arts put it, “For people like me, it’s a dream to work in a museum and it’s a dream I can’t afford, and that is really sad.” Several of the alumni interviewed recounted that after entering the workforce they experienced racism in their institutions.

“I encounter and try to overcome challenges on an almost-daily basis working in the arts. Institutional racism is a real thing. White supremacy is a real thing. That’s the world I live in. That’s the world we all live in. What else can you do? You can’t give up. You’ve got to keep going.” Getty Marrow Alum

Despite these challenges, many alumni who work in the arts choose to remain in the profession because of a passion for what they do and a sense of responsibility to help diversify the field. One alum explained, “Something that really drives my work in the arts is that I did not grow up going to museums or grow up around art, so I’m really trying to broaden the accessibility of these resources.” The COVID-19 pandemic does not seem to have lessened this commitment; many alumni want to be active participants in creating broad institutional change in the museum and non-profit sector. As one alum commented, “The nationwide protests … have changed the climate and attitude among arts institutions towards diversity, equity, access, and inclusion in a really encouraging way. I’ve made a concerted effort to immerse myself in more of these conversations … and be more active and vocal about these issues within my department and institution.”

The insistent demands by museum staff around the country for systemic change in response to nationwide calls for social justice and equity, which have intensified with the renewed visibility of the Black Lives Matter movement, suggest that cultural institutions are indeed at an important inflection point.

“I choose to stay in this field because it will not change if I leave.” Getty Marrow Alum

Moving forward, the Getty Foundation seeks to match the dedication of its alumni and supervisors in advancing change. Getty will continue the Getty Marrow internship program, pilot and implement new professional development opportunities, and focus on early-career interventions for alumni. With the apparent growth of internship programs focused on diversifying the arts across the country in recent years, Getty also invites closer collaboration with other arts institutions and funders. Together they can identify gaps in funding, share challenges and solutions, and achieve greater impact so that arts organizations will better reflect the communities they serve sooner rather than later.