A Guide to the Center

Arrival Plaza:

Trams arriving from the parking garage and front entrance deliver visitors to an expansive, stone-paved plaza.

The Museum:

Just beyond the plaza, at the top of a grand staircase, the museum entrance opens into a glass-walled rotunda containing an information desk, two orientation theaters and a bookshop. An open courtyard is surrounded by a series of four pavilions displaying the museum’s permanent collections of pre-20th century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture and decorative arts as well as 19th and 20th century American and European photography. A separate pavilion houses temporary exhibitions and an open-air cafe with spectacular views.

Central Garden:

Next to the museum is artist Robert Irwin’s 134,000-square-foot Central Garden. Its tree-lined, zigzag walkway crisscrosses a stream that flows into a circular pond at the base of the hill. Within the pond is a circular maze of azaleas that looks as if it’s floating on the water.

Research Institute:

The horseshoe shaped Research Institute, open to the public only on a limited basis, promotes knowledge of art history by hosting an international array of visiting scholars, sponsoring multidisciplinary programs, and organizing exhibitions and publishing books on its collections. Its holdings include a more an 800,000-volume library, 2 million study photographs of works of art and other archival collections.

Restaurant and Cafe:

The public, full-service restaurant, adorned with a three-part mural titled “Taste” by contemporary Los Angeles artist Alexis Smith, can be entered from the plaza between the museum and Research Institute. Above the restaurant are private dining rooms for small groups and a large meeting room. On the bottom floor, a public cafeteria offers salads, sandwiches and hot dishes.

Auditorium:

The 450-seat public auditorium presents arts symposiums, films, small-scale musical performances and lectures by artists, scholars and cultural leaders.

North Building:

The T-shaped North Building, not open to the public, houses the Getty Trust’s administrative offices and the Information Institute, which produces computerized research tools for art historians and promotes arts and culture on communications networks.

East Building:

The East Building, overlooking the 405 freeway, is also not open to the public. It houses the headquarters of three branches of the Getty Trust: the Conservation Institute, which preserves cultural monuments worldwide and conducts scientific research on the conservation of art and architecture; the Education Institute, dedicated to improving the quality and status of arts education in American elementary and secondary schools; and the Grant Program, which gives away about $7 million a year to support arts projects worldwide.