LOS ANGELES -- Fifteen museums from Santa Barbara to San Diego were named Tuesday as recipients of Getty Foundation grants totaling nearly $2.8 million as part of an effort to create a series of concurrent exhibitions focusing on the post-World War II Los Angeles art scene.
The planned exhibition, "Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980," will be the largest collaboration of museums ever undertaken in Southern California, Getty officials said. The concurrent exhibits are expected to begin in 2011.
"The exhibitions, and the events that will accompany them as part of 'Pacific Standard Time,' will demonstrate the pivotal role played by Southern California in national and international artistic movements since the middle of the twentieth century," said Deborah Marrow, director of the Getty Foundation.
"Art institutions from Santa Barbara to San Diego are joining together to create programs that will highlight the region's vibrant artistic scene."
The Getty Foundation earlier awarded 18 grants totaling nearly $2.7 million to libraries, archives and museums that have holdings helping to tell the story of the era.
The institutions named as grant recipients Tuesday were:
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
- Hammer Museum
- Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA
- California African American Museum
- The Orange County Museum of Art
- Pomona College Museum of Art
- University Art Museum at UC Santa Barbara
- Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
- American Museum of Ceramic Art
- Scripps College's Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery
- Santa Monica Museum of Art
- Otis College of Art and Design
- Long Beach Museum of Art
- Los Angeles Filmforum
Among the exhibitions that will be included in the collaborative effort will be MOCA's "California Culture, 1969-1980: Pluralism in the Postmodern Era," an exhibition of 120 artists who contributed to the variety of artistic practices that emerged on the West Coast during the decade.
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LACMA will feature an exhibition titled "California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way," featuring more than 300 works ranging from household items to "lifestyle" objects such as automobiles and surfboards.
The Hammer Museum, meanwhile, will provide a survey of the work of black artists in Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1970s.
Getty officials said other institutions are invited to participate in the regional exhibition. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is taking part by including California-related works in its 2011 season, and the Norton Simon Museum plans to exhibit selections from its collection of prints from the Tamarind Lithography Workshop.
"We hope that one outgrowth of 'Pacific Standard Time' will be future collaborations in the greater Los Angeles area that continue to build on the region's reputation as a major center for the visual and performing arts," Marrow said.
