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The J. Paul Getty Museum Observes Day Without Art

Unknown - Male Harp Player of the Early Spedos Type, Cycladic, about 2500 B.C., Marble - J. Paul Getty Museum 

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Monday, December 1st will mark the J. Paul Getty Museum’s nineteenth annual observance of Day Without Art, a day when the international arts community pauses to remember and respond to the AIDS crisis and its impact on cultural life. In commemoration of the day, the Getty Museum will shroud the Cycladic sculpture Harp Player at the Getty Villa this year. In shrouding this object, the Getty acknowledges the creative loss caused by the AIDS epidemic. A temporary label explaining the symbolism will be placed next to the object for the day.

The Getty Villa will have three memory trees outside the Museum entrance where visitors are invited to create a commemoration card and hang it from a branch. Each card will feature an image of rosemary, myrtle, date palm, or pomegranate, all of which have different meanings in ancient funerary myths and rituals. Visitors will be asked to select a plant whose ancient symbolic associations resonate with them. The memory tree concept is patterned after rituals of remembrance from antiquity to the present.

Additionally, the Getty Museum ’s education department will offer special Spotlight Talks in the galleries and gardens that explore the ways in which loss was commemorated in antiquity through works of art and nature. Each talk is twenty minutes long, and talks will be held throughout the day.

Information will be provided to visitors about AIDS and various organizations that welcome donations and volunteer help. In support of Day Without Art, the Getty will make a donation to a local organization that is addressing issues for people living with AIDS.

To participate in Day Without Art at the Getty Villa, visit www.getty.edu/visit  or call (310) 440-7300 to obtain free tickets in advance. The Getty Villa is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. (Because the Getty Center is closed to the public on Mondays, there will be no public commemoration of Day Without Art at the Getty Center ; however Getty staff will be invited to share remembrances that day.)