About the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program
Jerry Podany, Head of Antiquities Conservation at the Getty
Villa, shows the Fellows how the Altamura krater is
reconstructed.
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The USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program is a three week, mid-career education fellowship for arts, culture and entertainment editors, producers and writers from around the world. Formerly held during the spring, the program for 2008 will be offered in the fall (November 1 to 22, 2008), in order to coincide with USC’s academic year and take advantage of the resources available through the University.
The USC Annenberg/Getty Fellowship emboldens arts journalists to think – really think – about the meaning of human creative expression in a time of unprecedented demographic change and growth, widening gaps between Haves and Have-nots, technological revolution and its related upheaval in journalism. Designed to remind journalists why they got into this field in the first place, it’s a release from the daily grind. Think of it as a refresher course with the greatest expectation being that fellows return to their jobs loaded with ideas, vigor, polished skills and renewed purpose.
Sculptor Robert Graham with fellow, Loretta Williams, in front of his bronze LA Cathedral doors. |
Six to seven arts journalists who bring distinction to the field will be chosen from the applicant pool. During their three weeks on the fellowship, they will be away from their desks and habits and possible intellectual isolation. Moving through Los Angeles by a bus that serves as a mobile classroom of sorts, they experience the arts first-hand in all their manifestations, high and low, renowned and unknown, in familiar languages and strange, in concert halls and community centers and on screens, from big to palm-sized.
Some benefits Fellows in the past six years have acquired from this fellowship are:
• Three weeks free from deadlines – time to discover and develop future stories
• Credibility and increased confidence in digital media use
• Acquired skill in deciphering culture and art forms outside of usual beats
• Connections, contacts and rewarding friendships
• Strengthened critical thinking and aesthetic judgment skills
• Deepened understanding of social and economic arts policy issues
• Greater impact on and respect from readers, viewers and listeners
• Increased entrepreneurial savvy
• Improved outlook on arts journalism as a profession
Funded by The Getty Foundation in Los Angeles with support from USC Annenberg School for Communication since 2002, the fellowship accepts journalists who practice in all media and may possess intellectual strength in one distinct art form. Past fellows have concerned themselves with the performing and visual arts, architecture and literary criticism, community arts and pop culture. They have come from print, radio, television and online. They have been staff journalists and freelancers for dailies, weeklies, magazines and websites. They have represented media markets small, medium and large. There are ten applicants on average for each seat on the fellowship.
Fellows with members of the Los Angeles Poverty Department theater company on Skid Row. |
This is a mobile fellowship that treats Los Angeles as a diagnostic for what other cities may look like in the future. The day-to-day offerings range from visiting artists Chris Burden and Nancy Rubins in their canyon studio with an eye to understanding their creative process to seminars that help USC Annenberg/Getty Fellows face 21st century professional realities, starting with assessing the obstacles to their career advancement.
During the past six years, the USC Annenberg/Getty Fellowship has convened arts and culture leaders in multiple ways, including a rousing joint seminar about antiquities and cultural property, “Who Owns the Past in the Future?” with Ashton Hawkins, presented by USC Fisher Gallery and the USC Annenberg/Getty Fellowship. In 2007, the live-taping of Senior Fellow and host Kurt Andersen’s radio show, “
Studio 360,” brought 300 people together at The Getty Center’s Harold M. Williams Auditorium – two USC Annenberg/Getty Fellows assisted on the program.
Ramaa Bharadvaj leads fellows in an Indian dance exercise as part of a lecture-demonstration. |
Lecture demonstrations and seminars on digital media, on understanding non-profit law and public policy, on art + politics + activism, on learning how to see dance, and on contextualizing pop culture are some of our traditional and most effective and memorable offerings. Always, always, the emphasis is on the putting the artist first, learning from him or her what matters most through as many direct face-to-face conversations a day can hold.
Fellowship days are packed, robust and energetic.
“I think being able to see Los Angeles as a visitor, as an anthropologist might, in a way, I emerged from the fellowship with a renewed awareness about the wonders, dilemmas, contradictions and fissures inherent in the Los Angeles condition. It was a startling experience. I came away intellectually rejuvenated.”
~ Daniel Hernandez, L.A. Weekly, News and Culture Reporter (pictured left)
About the USC Annenberg School for Communication
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the USC Annenberg School for Communication is among the nation's leading institutions devoted to the study of arts journalism and criticism. Its mid-career education programs include the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program, the USC/NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater, the Knight Digital Media Center, the California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, and the Institute for Justice and Journalism. In addition to its programs for working journalists, USC Annenberg enrolls more than 1,900 students earning undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in journalism, communication, public diplomacy and public relations.
About The Getty Foundation
The Getty Foundation provides support to individuals and institutions committed to advancing the understanding and preservation of the visual arts locally and throughout the world. Through strategic grants and programs, the Los Angeles-based Foundation strengthens art history as a global discipline, increases access to collections, promotes interdisciplinary practice of conservation, and develops current and future leaders in the visual arts. The Foundation fulfills the philanthropic mission of the J. Paul Getty Trust, an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts. Additional information is available at http://www.getty.edu/foundation.
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