Curating Arts Careers for People of Color

In 1992, Los Angeles erupted in six days of violence and fires after four white police officers were acquitted of the brutal beating of Rodney King, an African-American man, which had been captured on videotape. More than 60 people died during the uprising.

As a cultural organization, the Getty Foundation struggled to figure out how to respond to the verdict and the riots that ensued. The result of that soul-searching was its Multicultural Undergraduate Internship program, which aims to diversify the overwhelmingly white staffs of arts groups and introduce students of color to the possibility of arts careers.

Since the program began in 1993, Getty has supported more than 3,200 paid summer internships at 160 arts organizations across Los Angeles County. The foundation’s investment has reached nearly $13 million.

From the start, the program has strived to give students meaningful work experiences in curation, conservation, and education — not just “making Xeroxes,” says Joan Weinstein, Getty’s deputy director.

“The opportunities, particularly at some of the smaller organizations, were astonishing,” she says. “They could curate a show over the summer.”

Still, 25 years after the program started, people of color remain underrepresented in the visual arts. A 2015 report from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation found that 84 percent of museum professionals are white; only 4 percent are black and 3 percent Hispanic.

“The work is far from done,” Ms. Weinstein says. “But it’s very, very encouraging to see former interns now rising through the ranks at various museums and starting to assume leadership positions.”

Shown here is 2016 intern Hanna Girma at the Mistake Room, a nonprofit gallery where she now works as an assistant curator.