Deborah Marrow
Deborah Marrow (October 18, 1948 – October 1, 2019) was an American arts administrator, longtime director of the Getty Foundation at the J. Paul Getty Trust.
Deborah Marrow | |
---|---|
Born | October 18, 1948 New York City |
Died | October 1, 2019 Santa Monica, California |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | arts administrator, art historian |
Years active | 1970s-2010s |
Known for | director of the Getty Foundation |
Early life
Marrow was born in New York City and raised in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of Seymour A. Marrow and Adele Marrow. Her father was an executive in the apparel industry.[1] She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, with a bachelor's degree in history. She earned a master's degree in art history at Johns Hopkins University, and completed doctoral studies in art history at the University of Pennsylvania in 1978, with a dissertation about royal arts patron Marie de’ Medici.[2][3]
Career
During graduate school, Marrow was a research assistant at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[3] Marrow moved to Los Angeles in 1977. She became editor of Chrysalis, a feminist arts periodical that ceased production in 1980. In 1983 she began working on publications at the Getty Trust.[4]
Marrow became director of the Getty Foundation, the grant-making program the J. Paul Getty Trust, in 1984. She was responsible for over $410 million in grants, to over a hundred arts institutions and scholars. "It gave me the opportunity to think about art and architecture across the entire world," she commented on her work with the Getty.[5]
Marrow created the Getty Multicultural Undergraduate Internship in 1993, as a response to riots and racial inequalities in Los Angeles. The internship funds undergraduates who would otherwise not be able to sustain a typically unpaid internship in a museum or other arts non-profit. Marrow was especially known for funding Pacific Standard Time, a citywide multi-institution event focusing on Los Angeles themes (Los Angeles after World War II in 2011-2012, and Latin American art in 2017).[2][6] She also took an interest in funding digitization projects at major museums, through the Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative (from 2008 to 2014),[7][4] and set up a $2 million fund for historical preservation in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.[8]
Marrow served as interim president of the J. Paul Getty Trust twice, in 2006-2007 and in 2010-2011;[9] at the time of her death, she was the only woman to ever serve as president of the Trust. She retired from the Trust in 2018, and the Getty Multicultural Undergraduate Internship was renamed the Getty Marrow Multicultural Undergraduate Internship Program in her honor that year.[7]
Marrow also served on the board of trustees the University of Pennsylvania for sixteen years, from 2003 to 2019.[3]
Personal life
Deborah Marrow married engineer Michael J. McGuire in 1971.[1] They had two children, Anna and David. She died in 2019, aged 70, in Santa Monica, California.[2][10]
References
- "Miss Marrow Wed To M. J. McGuire". The New York Times. 1971-06-20. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
- Finkel, Jori (2019-10-09). "Deborah Marrow, a Getty Leader With Global Reach, Dies at 70". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
- "Deborah Marrow, Trustee Emerita". Almanac. October 8, 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
- "Deborah Marrow (1948–2019)". ArtForum. October 3, 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
- Stoilas, Helen (October 2, 2019). "Deborah Marrow, the Getty's longest-serving leader, has died, aged 70". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
- Noriega, Chon. "Deborah Marrow, Presente!" UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.
- Greenberger, Alex (2019-10-02). "Deborah Marrow, Game-Changing Getty Foundation Leader, Has Died". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
- Robbins, Emily (March 12, 2008). "Deborah Marrow, Director, Getty Foundation: Shaping the Future of Arts Grantmaking". Philanthropy News Digest (PND). Retrieved 2019-12-30.
- "Getty appoints interim president and CEO". Orange County Register. 2010-06-15. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
- "Deborah Marrow, longtime Getty Foundation director and arts funder, dies". Los Angeles Times. 2019-10-04. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
External links
- A 2019 interview with Deborah Marrow by Jori Finkel, in The Art Newspaper.
- Getty Foundation press release (2018) on the retirement of Deborah Marrow.
- Getty Foundation press release (2019) on the death of Deborah Marrow.
- Posts by Deborah Marrow at "the iris", a Getty Foundation blog.