College Night at the Getty

Camarillo, Calif., April 15, 2015 – College students across Southern California are invited to Getty College Night at the Getty Museum on Monday, April 27 from 6 to 9:30 p.m.

The free event was organized by about 22 CSU Channel Islands (CI) students who enrolled in an interdisciplinary museum class, which is taught by CI Professor of Art History Irina D. Costache and Business Lecturer Michael Seay.

The students worked in collaboration with the Getty Museum/Education program and two groups of students from the University of California Los Angeles and Otis College of Design.

The students spent the semester planning events that would interest college students while also highlighting all the Getty Museum has to offer.

“It’s important to include students in the planning of College Night,” said Peter Tokofsky, Education Specialist at the Getty and organizer of the annual College Night. “This is an event for students and including their views, voices and ideas is crucial to the success of the evening.”

The students came up with a variety of events that would be fun and also reflect the Getty’s current exhibit by British artist J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851).

Among the events was a “selfie station” outside the exhibit where students could don raincoats and use umbrellas as props, a nod to Turner’s moody, sometimes stormy work.

There will also be a dance display featuring lighted hula hoops, an homage to Turner’s use of light.

“It's a way to gain the student population as future art supporters and museum-goers,” Costache said.

One of the CI student planners, Winverli Rivera, 27, of Oxnard, has been won over.

Before helping to plan Getty College Night, art wasn’t of much interest to her, but when she stood in front of paintings done by master artists, she was mesmerized.

“Looking at a real painting an artist did hundreds of years go is way different than learning about it,” Rivera said. “It’s your own interpretation, your own perception. You figure out what the painting is about.”

Seay believes the students got a valuable lesson in all the layers involved in putting on an event for a storied institution like the Getty Museum.

“The Getty gets some really good feedback and perspective from the Millennials by helping to plan this event with them,” Seay said. “And the Millennials get feedback from an institution with a brand and an image on par with any Fortune 500 Company.”

Costache developed the museum course in 2003 with CI Business Professor William Cordeiro and Education Professor Joan Karp. In the past, the course has been a partner to other museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard.

Attendance at College Night has increased every year with Tokofsky hoping for as many as 3,000 participants this year.

For more information about the event and to make a reservation (not required but recommended), click on: http://www.getty.edu/education/college/center_collegenight_2015.html.

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About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands
(CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CI's Social Media.

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