Getty Scholar Grants
Annual Theme: Repair
The Getty Scholars Program supports researchers in advancing knowledge of the arts and humanities and producing cutting-edge scholarship that contributes to the understanding and preservation of cultural heritage. While in residence, scholars have the opportunity to spend significant time at one of the world’s premier art history collections while contributing to an international community committed to intellectual exploration and exchange. Scholars may be in residence at the Getty Center or Getty Villa.
Background
History
Since 1985, the Getty Scholars Program has hosted nearly 1,500 residential scholars from over fifty countries to conduct research on topics related to the annual theme while residing in Los Angeles. Selected projects have spanned geographical regions and time periods, from ancient to contemporary eras. Getty receives between 300 and 400 applications each year and awards fellowships to about twenty applicants annually.
Structure
A mix of senior scholars and junior fellows are selected for the Scholars Program cohort. The cohort's research projects are focused on an annual theme. The three main grant categories are:
This page provides information about Scholar Grants for established researchers and professionals residing at the Getty Center.
- Scholar Grants for established researchers and professionals who have held PhDs for at least 5 years and/or possess strong records of publication and professional activity, at the Getty Center or Getty Villa
- Postdoctoral Fellowships for recently granted PhDs at the Getty Center or Getty Villa
- Predoctoral Fellowships for PhD candidates at the Getty Center
Applicants for 2025–2026
Application Timeline
Applications for 2025–2026 year grants will open July 1, 2024. The deadline to apply is October 1, 2024 by 5:00 p.m. (PDT).
Annual Theme: Repair
For 2025–2026, Getty invites scholars and arts professionals to apply for a residential fellowship on the topic of repair, a theme that bridges time periods, world geographies, and professional practices. Situated between the forces of creation and destruction, the act of repair can be deeply transformative, with the potential to heal, alter, and renew the material environment. Scholars are asked to think critically about repair, questioning interpretive assessments about the ideal state of any object or site, in addition to querying what constitutes damage or whether to repair the ruined or the broken. Beyond such physical interventions, art and sites of commemoration are often mobilized to heal a fractured social fabric. Indeed, art itself may be offered as reparation to address past wrongs or to recuperate loss. The issue of repair has deep bearing for the arts, conceived in the broadest sense, and especially for institutions that aim to preserve and share global cultural heritage.
Guiding Questions
- Although often considered an ameliorative process, what are the limitations of repair? Which questions or considerations emerge when efforts to repair fail or fall short?
- How might the notion of repair lend itself to transdisciplinary and/or collaborative methods that expand understudied or precarious practices in art history or open onto new forms of understanding between various arenas of knowledge and practice?
- Acts of repair—material, infrastructural, environmental, and social—require intensive efforts on the part of workers in many fields. How do we account for human labor and agency in the act of repair?
- Efforts to repair or rehabilitate art and cultural heritage have catalyzed debate and contention among scholars, conservators, archaeologists, and the public. What can we learn from these discussions?
- How can the concept of repair help us think in new ways about the networked relations between living things and their environments?
- How can the concept of repair be conceptualized in order to make way for new forms and the possibility of radical alteration?
African American Art History Initiative Grants
Under the umbrella of the annual theme, dedicated grants are available via the African American Art History Initiative (AAAHI). This residential program, which welcomed its first cohort of scholars in fall 2021, provides financial support and housing to scholars who are expanding critical inquiry of African American art and its frameworks. AAAHI invites scholars working on topics that align with the annual theme. As part of the scholar year cohort, AAAHI scholars have opportunities to present their research and receive feedback from an interdisciplinary group of peers. AAAHI scholars can also expect additional programming with Getty staff supporting the study of African American art.
We invite applications from scholars who focus on African American art and visual culture in all time periods and media and in a broad range of theoretical and methodological traditions. Projects that propose engagement with Getty’s growing collections of archival and primary source material related to African American art history are welcome. However, relevance to Getty holdings is not a project requirement. Applicants should indicate in their project proposal how their project would align with AAAHI's aim to make African American art history more visible to the public and accessible to the scholarly community worldwide.
There will be a virtual information session for interested AAAHI applicants in September 2024. More information will be forthcoming.
Grant Details
The information on this page pertains to Scholar Grants for established researchers and professionals at the Getty Center. Visit the Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellowships or the Getty Scholars Program at the Villa pages for details about those specific programs.
Eligibility
Scholar Grant applicants should have received a PhD before September 1, 2021. Applicants from associated fields who do not hold a PhD but have commensurate professional experience will also be considered.
Applicants who received their degree after September 1, 2021 should apply for a Postdoctoral Fellowship.
After a waiting period of six years, previous Getty Residential Grant recipients in any category are eligible to reapply for another grant in whichever category they are eligible for and interested in. See FAQsfor more information.
Terms
Scholar Grant recipients at the Getty Center may be in residence from three to nine months and receive varying stipends as detailed below*:
Recipients also receive a relocation stipend of $2,000.
See the overview of the Getty Residential Scholar and Fellow Program for further details about stipends, housing, healthcare, and more.
- Three-month residency: September–December/January–March; $21,500 stipend
- Six-month residency: September–March/January–June; $43,000 stipend
- Nine-month residency: September–June; $65,000 stipend
Application Process
How to Apply
Applicants need to complete and submit the online Getty Scholar Grant application form by the deadline, which requires the following attachments:
- Project Proposal (not to exceed five pages, typed and double-spaced): Must include a description of the applicant's proposed plan of study. The description should indicate how the project addresses the annual theme and, if applicable, how it would benefit from the resources at the Getty, including its library and collections. However, relevance to Getty holdings is not a project requirement.
Applicants for AAAHI grants should additionally describe how their projects will generate new knowledge in the field of African American art history.
- Curriculum Vitae
- Optional Writing Sample
Decision Notification
Applicants will be notified of their application outcome approximately six months after the deadline.
Contact
Find answers to the most common questions about residential grant opportunities at Getty.
Still have questions? Send inquires to researchgrants@getty.edu.
