In honor of my first all-nighter of the quarter, this week I decided to find the perfect place to study. I wanted somewhere scenic and relatively quiet, and while places like the beach or a nice off-campus library came to mind, I settled on something a little closer to home. Other than North Campus, one place you can sit back with a cup of coffee, beautiful scenery and breath-taking art is the Getty Center.
The nice thing about the Getty is that admission is always free. Parking is $15, but only before 5 p.m. If you’re attending an evening lecture or one of the many concert series the museum puts on, or visiting during Saturday’s extended hours (when the Getty closes at 9 p.m.), then driving to the Getty is actually the cheaper option.
The longest part of getting to the Getty is catching the bus. If you’re in the dorms or the nearby apartments, then Sunset and Bellagio is the closest stop. The bus (the Metro Line 761) comes every 20 minutes or so, though it was late going both ways. Once you’re on the bus, the only things between you and the museum are a six-minute ride to the Getty Center and Sepulveda and a short, scenic tram ride along the side of a mountain overlooking hills and the 405.
When the tram pulled up to the Getty, one man said that it looked like a castle. It’s true ““ if castles were being built on a regular basis, I imagine they’d look like the Getty, modern but covered in marble with sprawling gardens and wide, open courtyards.
Before exploring the exhibits, I gave myself time to walk around. I made my way to the Central Garden and followed the winding path down to the garden centerpiece, a maze made out of azalea plants.
I was surprised to see a lot of couples roaming around. Then again, I went on a Saturday night and there is something romantic about the Getty. There’s even a ritzy restaurant (“The Restaurant at the Getty Center”) that could easily serve as the spot of a romantic dinner.
I spoke to a couple that met while they were at UCSB, Phil Merkow, 27, and his wife, Jennifer, 25. The couple visited the museum in the evening because parking is free after 5 p.m. and the good weather throughout the day promised a beautiful sunset, said Jennifer.
Like me, they had no set plan, other than to wander around and see everything they could. For Phil, a first-time visitor to the museum, the Getty made a good first impression. He said he couldn’t imagine someone coming to Los Angeles and not putting the Getty on their list.
By this point I had seen enough of the grounds and was ready to see the exhibits. I’m more interested in photography than painting, so of the nine exhibits running the day I visited, I saw two: “Felice Beato: A Photographer on the Eastern Road” and “Photography from the New China.”
The only common thread between the two exhibits seems to be the part of the world where the photos were taken and the political nature of the work. Beato specialized in photos taken during or after battles fought by the British army in different conflicts (the Crimean War, the 1857 Indian Mutiny and the Second Opium War); the New China photography reflects the expansion of art following loosened, post-Cold War restrictions on creativity. By this point I’d given up on studying, but there’s always the chance that art will come up on a midterm.
If you would have actually managed to get studying done at the Getty, e-mail John at ajohn@media.ucla.edu.ӬӬ
“Bus Stops” runs every Tuesday.