The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College is pleased to announce that it has received a $115,000 grant from the Getty Foundation to support the Benton’s new AllPaper Seminar, a program designed to introduce emerging professionals of diverse backgrounds to the field of works on paper (prints, drawings, and photographs). The grant is part of The Paper Project, an international initiative of the Getty Foundation that supports training and professional development for early- and mid-career curators of prints and drawings. At the Benton, the grant will fund two consecutive annual programs that will bring undergraduates and recent graduates together with established professionals to learn about the stewardship of these collections. Participants will ideally be located in the southwestern region of the United States and represent different racial, ethnic, and socio-economic communities. Applications are currently being accepted for the first term of the program, which will cover printmaking and begin in January 2022.
“The Benton’s program is a commendable effort to increase awareness of the graphic arts as an area of expansive potential in museum programming,” said Heather MacDonald, the Getty Foundation Senior Program Officer who manages the initiative. “Prints and drawings collections are full of unsung opportunities to engage new audiences, and the field will only grow stronger if we have greater diversity among curators entrusted with this work.”
“Because works on paper are light sensitive, they are not as visible to the public as other museum objects like paintings and sculpture,” said Victoria Sancho Lobis, the Sarah Rempel and Herbert S. Rempel ’23 Director of the Benton. “To study prints, drawings, and photographs, someone literally needs to open a door to provide access, often in a study room or other behind-the-scenes space. We are grateful to the Getty Foundation for supporting our AllPaper Seminar, and together we hope that we can encourage a new generation of specialists to join the museum world and carry forward the study of these important and intriguing collections.”
The Getty grant will support two years of the Benton’s proposed three-year program. The first year is devoted to printmaking, the second year to drawing, and the third—to be funded by an alternate source—to photography. The two-part curriculum begins for the 12 selected participants with an orientation session at the Getty Center January 13–14, 2022. Six months later, from June 6 to June 12, 2022, the group will reconvene for an intensive weeklong residency at the Benton. The residency will include hands-on sessions that treat the material properties of prints and printmaking, the history of printmaking and collecting, practices of interpretation and project development related to works on paper, and trips to visit print collections and workshops in the Los Angeles area. At the end of the program, participants will produce a professional-level project such as a scholarly essay, exhibition proposal, print-on-demand booklet, or podcast episode.
All expenses will be paid for participants, and all travel and logistical arrangements will be made by the Benton. Additionally, participants will receive a $1500 honorarium.
The AllPaper Seminar offers a broad introduction to a fascinating yet often inconspicuous part of museum practice. The program includes professional mentorship by curatorial staff at the Benton as well as other institutions such as the Getty Museum and Getty Research Institute; Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Norton Simon Museum.
Submit an application to the AllPaper Seminar at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College. For more information, please visit the Benton’s website.
About the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College
Now housed in the new Benton Museum of Art designed by Machado Silvetti and Gensler, Pomona College’s collection of art numbers 16,000 objects, including Italian Renaissance paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; works on paper, including a first edition print series by Francisco Goya given by Norton Simon; and works in various media produced in Southern California in the twentieth century. In keeping with Pomona College’s reputation as a leading center of the visual arts, the collection also includes works by such esteemed alumni as Chris Burden ’69, Marcia Hafif ’51, Helen Pashgian ’56, Peter Shelton ’73, and James Turrell ’65. Recognized globally for its commitment to contemporary art, the museum is the home of The Project Series, which has featured more than 50 contemporary Southern California artists since it began in 1999. Through its collaboration with students and faculty, the museum encourages active learning and creative exploration across all disciplines of study within the liberal arts context.
About the Getty Foundation
The Getty Foundation fulfills the philanthropic mission of the Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the greater understanding and preservation of the visual arts in Los Angeles and throughout the world. Through strategic grant initiatives, it strengthens art history as a global discipline, promotes the interdisciplinary practice of conservation, increases access to museum and archival collections, and develops current and future leaders in the visual arts. It carries out its work in collaboration with other Getty Programs to ensure that they individually and collectively achieve maximum effect.
