IT'S YOUR MUSEUM DESPITE ITS LOFTY PERCH, GETTY SEEKING IDENTITY AS A PLACE FOR ALL ANGELENOS.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

They built it, and everyone did come - or so it seemed.

Now, nearly three years after its glitzy opening splash, the J. Paul Getty Museum is trying to become more fully integrated into the community it overlooks.

While attendance at the museum is down from its first year, when it drew 1.8 million visitors, exceeding expectations by nearly a half-million, the 1.4 million it expects to draw this year is just fine with Getty officials, who predicted that kind of drop-off when the museum opened.

Perceived by some as a fortress on the hill for effete art lovers, and by others passing below on the 405 as a mere curiosity, the museum is moving into a new phase (call it a maturing period). It is actively trying to become more a part of the city's everyday life, a place that Angelenos might go to as easily as they would a movie.

Getty officials are doing this in part by making it easier for visitors to stop by the center, take in an exhibit or a concert, have dinner or simply come up for the panoramic view of the city. But what you don't see in the ads extolling you to visit the museum may be more significant. The museum is actively extending an invitation to those in the city who might never view the imposing marble structure as a destination.

Through its community outreach and education programs, the Getty has been helping to bring low-income families, working adults who are also English-as-a-second-language students, senior groups and school children up to the museum.

``We want to make sure we are known as being accessible to as broad an audience as possible,'' says Deborah Gribbon, who on Oct. 1 became director of the museum, succeeding John Walsh, who stepped down after 17 years, which included 14 years with the original Getty in Malibu.

Ileene Parker, assistant director for community support services of the Valley Interfaith Council in Chatsworth, says her nonprofit group, which aids low-income families, was contacted because the Getty was looking to get greater participation from the Valley and was encouraging people from different income levels to visit the museum.

Parker says the Getty helped with transportation and parking so her clients could attend one of the museum's family festivals. Most of the families had never been to a museum, she says, much less to an event at a museum.

The festivals usually include musicians, singers, dancers and staged plays as well as hands-on activities for children. The next one is Saturday (see accompanying story).

``One of the things that's beautiful about them inviting us is that some of the people we sent are actually homeless persons from the shelters, and their families,'' says Parker, ``but they are mainstreamed in with the general public at the family festivals. They're not separated into little tour groups or anything. They're integrated in with everyone else, and that's an important thing for people to realize - that these places are for all people, regardless of income or background.''

Education has been the focus of the Getty, too. Last summer, museum officials spent a week with 40 teachers examining the links between teaching and art. It's a relationship the Getty is continuing in order to jointly develop curriculum materials to integrate art into the classroom.

Another invitation the Getty is extending is to schools. ``We have a multiple-visit program for kids all over the city,'' says Diane Bingham, head of education for the museum.

One of the target schools was Kester Elementary in Van Nuys. Greg Schaffer, a fourth-grade teacher there, says that his students who took part in the Getty's multivisit program are still talking about it. Many in his class are considered Limited English Proficient students, he says, and going to the Getty was a positive experience for them, especially in helping with their oral skills.

Susie Fritzen, a fifth-grade teacher at Lankershim Elementary School in North Hollywood, found the same to be true.

``Most of my students are Hispanic, and, for most of my children, English isn't their first language. (The visits) are a great vocabulary-development program where the students are able to build on their vocabulary by real-life experiences.''

The multivisits helped, she says.

During the first visit, students first examine art through their own eyes. In the second visit, they consider art through the eyes of the artist; in the third, from an art historian's perspective.

She was also impressed that the Getty provided students with journals so they can do hands-on activities at the museum plus follow-up activities in the classroom.

Both teachers say they have incorporated what they've learned during their visits into the classroom and are looking forward to this year's return trips with students.

But interestingly enough, Fritzen says she didn't even think it was ``feasible'' to go to the museum until the Getty invited her school, which once again shows the perception that the museum is inaccessible.

On a recent, drizzly, late Friday afternoon, the museum was alive despite the inclement weather.

In one of four family rooms at the center, parents and kids try out the computers or play hands-on educational games. One group is trying on costumes as part of an exhibit that allows them to understand the choices an artist makes when creating a painting, including expression, props, background and clothing.

In the museum cafe, Marie Pedersen of Santa Monica is about to sit down to dinner with three of her friends. The group is there to attend a reading that night of L.A. women writers.

Pedersen, who has visited the museum a number of times and says she loves it, was feeling ``disappointed'' that she hadn't come earlier. There was an exhibition she wanted to see that she hadn't had time for. When told it was ending in two days, Pedersen said she'd have to come back.

In one way, this is exactly what Getty officials want to hear. They want to be the museum where people can drop by, joking that the word on the street is that the Getty is a place to go for a cheap date.

``We try to have a mix of those kinds of programs that attract younger adult audiences - sometimes literary, music, dance,'' Bingham says about the evening programs. Dropping the parking reservation requirement for Thursday and Friday after 4 p.m. has helped this, too, and the crowd that evening seems to bear this out. There are many couples and people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, but few children or seniors.

Over the past few months, the museum also has dropped the off-putting parking reservation requirements on weekends.

``Having been open now for a couple of years, we have a better sense of what our busiest times are ... and how we can can get people in and out more efficiently,'' says Gribbon.

Hearing this, you almost forget you're talking about what is considered the world's richest art institution. The 110-acre hillside complex cost an estimated $1 billion to build, and the Getty Trust doesn't seem to blink at the blockbuster purchase such as Van Gogh's ``Irises,'' which is thought to be in the $50 million range.

Over the past three years, though, the Getty has been quiet on the acquisition front - the notable exception being the purchase of Cezanne's ``Young Italian Woman Leaning on Her Elbow.''

A year after it opened, there were staff layoffs. Gribbon says the institution is aware of what they are spending, in terms of a responsible budget, ``but we are in a very fortunate position that, when something truly extraordinary comes on the market, often with a very high price attached to it, the trustees have the resources and are prepared to be flexible to take advantage of that opportunity.'' Does this mean the museum will be more active in the art market?

``It's fair to say that the trustees ... have really rededicated themselves to acquiring more aggressively than we might have in the past couple of years,'' says Gribbon.

But having money doesn't mean you have something to buy.

``All the money in the world can't buy the masterpieces locked away in the museums of the world,'' says UCLA art professor Abert Boine.

Trying in the year 2000 to build a major museum collection is simply difficult, agrees Henry Hopkins, former director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and UCLA Hammer Museum, and current professor of art at UCLA. ``Everyone's problem is that major paintings rarely come on the market anymore and are hideously expensive.''

But Gribbon says the Getty still prefers to promote its permanent collection (a portion of which is in storage until the Getty Villa, which was the original museum, reopens in 2002) and likes to bring in more specialized exhibitions such as the recent one on stained glass.

``Our goal was to complement what was already going on in Los Angeles. Because LACMA is interested in bringing the Van Gogh exhibition to the city, the Getty didn't feel like it had to compete.''

Since the Getty limits its collection to pre-20th-century works except for photography, it also limits itself in the breadth of its collection.

``Probably the combination of LACMA and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena have stronger holdings than the Getty as far as paintings are concerned,'' says Hopkins. However, he points out that the museum's strength is in its antiquities, manuscripts and furnishings.

``You'd have to say that the (Getty) collection, at least in terms of the painting, has some very good examples but it's spotty - but combined with the things held by the other museums, Los Angeles now has art holdings that are truly significant.''

Hopkins says there is no question that the Getty has given L.A. a more prominent place on the world's cultural map.

He says the building of the Getty came at a time when L.A. has some of the best art schools in the country and when a large number of young artists coming out of Los Angeles are as important as any in the world.

``So it was kind of a serendipitous moment when the Getty opened. It called attention to a region that was already gaining a kind of true credibility and it just simply enhances it.''

But Boine says the Getty didn't do itself any favors by building up on a hill in Brentwood, saying it was ironic the institution advertised itself in the beginning as ``your Getty.''

``It seems to me that 'your Getty' should be somewhere accessible and not up there on a hill,'' says Boine. ``I think it's a bit remote from the rest of the community, but the Getty sort of set itself beyond the reach of the immediate populace in Los Angeles. ... Even symbolically it overlooks Los Angeles as a sort of feudal castle from medieval times.'' And that perception has dogged the museum.

Hopkins thinks that the Getty's actions - instituting programs on the weekends for children and putting funds into the community - belie its reputation for being removed from the city.

Boine, too, applauds the Getty's contributions to the community. ``They have the funds to do those things, and it's great that they are doing that.''

So where is the Getty on the L.A. landscape? Will the institute be viewed as down to earth by most Angelenos? Gribbon sounds determined.

``Are we concerned about where we are? No. Do we feel we're doing well? Yes. Would we like to serve an even larger, broader audience? Yes.''

Getting to the Getty

1200 Getty Center Drive

Los Angeles, CA 90049

[phone]

Web site: www.getty.edu

ADMISSION

Admission to the Getty Center is free. Parking reservations are required; parking is $5 per car. Information and reservations in English/Spanish: [phone]. TTY for the deaf or hearing impaired: [phone].

No parking reservations are needed on Saturdays and Sundays or after 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. Parking is subject to availability. College students with current school ID and visitors arriving by public transportation, motorcycle or bicycle can visit without parking reservations at any time.

Reservations are required for weekday parking, event seating and groups of 15 or more. Reservations are recommended for the restaurant. Parking on surrounding streets is restricted.

DIRECTIONS

The Getty Center is located near the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) and the Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10) in Los Angeles.

Use the Getty Center Drive exit from the 405. Metro Bus 561 and Santa Monica Big Blue Bus 14 stop at the entrance.

HOURS

Mondays and major U.S. holidays - CLOSED

Tuesdays and Wednesdays - 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

Thursdays and Fridays - 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Saturdays and Sundays - 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

EXHIBITS at the GETTY

``MEXICO: FROM EMPIRE TO REVOLUTION'' - This two-part exhibition of photography taken between the 1850s and 1920s captures the political struggles and everyday life of Mexico. Part 1 focuses on the empire of Maximilian in the 1860s and the concurrent documentation of the ruins of ancient pre-Hispanic empires by foreign photographers. Oct. 21, 2000, through Jan. 21, 2001, Research Institute Exhibition Gallery.

``VOYAGES AND VISIONS: EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE WILSON FAMILY COLLECTION'' - Features photographs dating from the emergence of this new medium in 1839 through the golden age of the 1850s that reflect photographers' attempts to document the world. Amassed over the past 20 years by Michael and Jane Wilson, the Wilson Family Collection is based in Los Angeles and London. Oct. 24, 2000, through Feb. 18, 2001, West Pavilion, plaza level.

``THE MAKING OF A MEDIEVAL BOOK'' - Explains how illuminated manuscripts were made in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, beginning with the preparation of the animal skin to make parchment, continuing through the writing and painting stages, and ending with the binding of the volume. Through Nov. 5, 2000, North Pavilion, courtyard level.

``RAPHAEL AND HIS CIRCLE: DRAWINGS FROM WINDSOR CASTLE'' _ Featuring one of the world's finest drawing collections, this international traveling exhibition from Windsor Castle celebrates Raphael as one of Western art's most influential figures. Organized by the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Oct. 31, 2000, through Jan. 7, 2001, Exhibitions Pavilion.

``RAPHAEL AND HIS INFLUENCE ACROSS THE CENTURIES'' _ Features Raphael drawings from the museum's own collection, focusing on Raphael's impact on his contemporaries and on artists from subsequent generations. Complements the loan exhibition ``Raphael and His Circle.'' Oct. 31, 2000, through Jan. 7, 2001, East Pavilion, plaza level.

``PETER PAUL RUBENS AND THE ART OF DRAWING IN FLANDERS'' _ Features the newly acquired and magnificent ``The Assumption of the Virgin,'' along with other Rubens drawings in the museum's collection as well as works by his predecessors and contemporaries such as Anthony van Dyck, Frans Snyders, Jan Cossiers and Jacob Jordaens. Through Oct. 22, 2000, East Pavilion, courtyard level.

``ANCIENT ART FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION'' _ An installation of some of the finest works from the museum's collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, including objects from the recently acquired collection of Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman. Through Dec. 31, 2000.

Bring the FAMILY

FAMILY FESTIVAL - The next Family Festival takes place 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, with performances by local dance and musical groups, storytelling, art-making workshops and gallery activities. Hands-on activities related to the ``Queen of the Angels'' and ``Peter Paul Rubens'' exhibitions will also be featured. The event is held in the museum's courtyard.

STORYTELLING - Lively presentations of myths and legends related to the collections. Meet in front of the Museum's Family Room. Spanish: noon Oct. 14 and 28. Sign-language interpretation: 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m. today and Oct. 22. Other storytelling times: 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Oct. 14 and 28; 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m. Oct. 15, 21, 22 and 29.

FAMILY WORKSHOPS - Bring the family and visit the galleries with a teacher, then work on art projects in the studio. This month's theme is ``Angelic Books''; the workshops will focus on the ``Queen of the Angels'' exhibition. Reservations required; call [phone]. English: 10:30 a.m.-noon and 1-2:30 p.m. Oct. 21-22. Spanish: 10:30 a.m.-noon and 1-2:30 p.m. Oct. 28-29.

CAPTION(S):

10 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Open Invitation

In its third year, the Getty Museum is striving for an image of greater accessibility in a highly diverse L.A.

(2 -- color) A young girl tries on a mask in one of the Getty's four family rooms.

(3 -- color) Hands-on activities are part of family days. Here, a young visitor gets some help with her artwork.

(4 -- color) Families can use computers in the museum's family rooms.

4 Visitors are attracted to the Getty. While attendance is down compared to its heady first year, the museum is expected to draw 1.4 million guests this year.

(5 -- color) Peter Paul Rubens' ``Assumption of the Virgin'' is on view in the Getty's current Rubens exhibit and is part of the inspiration for Saturday's family day.

(6 -- color) Visitors are attracted to the Getty. While attendance is down compared to its heady first year, the museum is expecting to draw 1.4 million guests this year.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer

(7) ``Young Soldier '' Anonymous

(8) ``The Artist's Van '' Roger Fenton 

(9) ``Poetry '' Raphael

(10) ``Anatomical Studies '' Peter Paul Rubens

Box: (1) Bring the Family (see text)

(2) Getting to the Getty (see text)

(3) Exhibits at the Getty (see text)