The J. Paul Getty Museum, usually silent and empty on Monday nights, will be filled with the sound of thousands of college students tonight.
At least 2,500 students are expected to participate in the Getty’s annual College Night this evening. All college students from around the Los Angeles area are invited to participate in the event, which includes food, access to the museum’s exhibitions, hands-on art activities, special docent-led tours and live musical performances.
Peter Tokofsky, an education specialist for the Getty Museum, said the museum hosts this annual event to welcome college students to the Getty and Los Angeles.
“We want to introduce ourselves to the college students in the area and we know we’re a great resource for students,” Tokofsky said. “We just want to make sure everyone knows that we’re here and the kind of things that we have on view here.”
Megan Ro, a third-year art history student, is one of the eight members of the Getty’s student committee that helps to plan College Night every year. The committee plans a few of College Night’s activities and selects the music for the event.
“The event is about reaching out to students who maybe wouldn’t come to the museum before and make it more engaging for the students,” Ro said. “It’s obviously supposed to be for the fun of it, but we also want students to take something meaningful with them.”
Students on the committee, like Ro, also select the food for College Night. The first 2,500 attendees will receive a meal ticket for a grilled sausage sandwich or a portabello mushroom sandwich as well as one non-alcoholic drink. Alcoholic drinks and other food will also be sold at the event.
Tokofsky said making a reservation at the museum’s website helps to ensure that there is enough food for all attendees.
At this year’s College Night, the Getty will focus its exhibition on modern architecture, “Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940-1990.” Attendees will have access to curator-led tours of the exhibition.
The hands-on art activities at the event are also connected to the “Overdrive” exhibition. James Rojas, a Los Angeles urban planner, will lead a workshop where students construct models of a city with found objects like plastic easter eggs, popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners while thinking about ways to solve urban problems with city planning. There will also be a smaller art activity where students can use various art supplies to mark L.A. landmarks on two huge maps of Southern California.
Three of the Getty’s other current exhibitions, “Japan’s Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto,” “Looking East: Rubens’s Encounter with Asia” and “In Focus: Ed Ruscha” as well as parts of its permanent collection will also be on view. For students who arrive early, there will also be a behind-the-scenes tour about how exhibitions are planned and artworks are conserved.
When not in the museum’s galleries, students can listen to live performances from Cayucas, a local indie-rock band, and Trackstars, a local DJ group. There will also be a photo booth at the event where attendees can pose with their friends and take home a commemorative photo.
Third-year international development studies student Melissa Merrill attended College Night last year and said she is excited to go again this year.
“The Getty is beautiful and it’s hard to go there when it’s open during the day,” Merrill said. “I really want to see Cayucas and I’m excited to see the new exhibit. (I’m looking forward to) free food, free music, and just being really artsy.”
Christina Mattson, a first-year English student, is planning on attending College Night for the first time.
“I’m excited for the music and being around a bunch of people,” Mattson said. “The Getty is also just really beautiful.”