Getty Trust Cuts 114 Jobs in Effort to Reduce Costs and Refocus Mission

The J. Paul Getty Trust, in Los Angeles, has eliminated 114 staff positions and taken other cost-cutting measures as part of a long-term plan to enhance its arts programs.

Fewer than 40 staff members were laid off. The rest of the job cuts were achieved through attrition, elimination of vacant positions, and voluntary departures, says Ron Hartwig, the Getty Trust’s vice president of communications.

The bulk of the eliminated positions were in administrative departments, including the information-technology department and facilities management. Arts programs should not be affected by the staff reductions, he said.

The cuts emerged from a strategic-planning process begun last summer by James Wood, who was hired as president of the Getty Trust in January 2007. The organization, which operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Villa, research and conservation institutes, and a grant-making foundation, employs about 1,500 people.

“Everybody got refocused on our mission, which is the support of the visual arts and research and education in the visual arts, and that began to mesh with our fiscal year 2009 budgeting process,” says Mr. Hartwig.

The goal is to funnel the cost savings into the creation of a “major acquisitions and strategic-initiatives fund,” in what Mr. Hartwig would only describe as a “multimillion dollar” effort.

He estimated that in the short term, direct support for arts programming will increase by 25 percent as a result of the cost savings.

‘Long-Term’ Issues

Mr. Hartwig stressed that the move is not related to current economic conditions. “Our endowment is healthy,” he says. “This is about the long-term success of the Getty and its ability to achieve its mission long term; this has nothing to do with short-term issues.”

The Getty’s previous leader, Barry Munitz, resigned in early 2006 amid accusations that funds were misused related to his compensation and benefits. Mr. Munitz reimbursed the trust $250,000 and agreed to forfeit $2-million in benefits in response to the California attorney general’s investigation.