Getty Villa’s College Night offers evening of fun, culture

What do you get when you mix free food, a replica of a Roman villa, excited students and possibly even more excited curators? Getty Villa’s College Night, of course.

This Tuesday, the Getty Villa will be hosting its annual fall College Night, offering behind-the-scenes tours, food, music and caricature artists, all free for college students. But it’s not just a classroom trip to the museum. Shelby Brown, educational specialist at the Villa, explained that though most school museum visits are conducted by professors with a certain agenda, College Night allows students to “visit in a completely student-friendly environment, free from any classroom obligations.”

 

“We assume that just by being in a museum people discover things they like that they might not otherwise.”

Since the Villa itself is a replica of an ancient Roman villa and all the displays are Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities, the museum can present fun things to do while maintaining a connection to the ancient world. This was precisely the Getty’s goal when the institution started College Night in 2006 at the Getty Center. Its popularity allowed it to grow to two nights each year: one in the spring at the Center, the other in the fall at the Villa.

College Night will feature special tours, some of which will focus on heroes and warriors against their human and monster opponents to honor Veterans Day, behind-the-scenes tours of the Conservation Labs and the Getty Research Institute Science Lab, and a sneak peek of an upcoming exhibition.

“These are hot-ticket items because the conservators and scientists can only offer a few tours,” Brown said. She added that there will be plenty of other exclusive tours for attendees — rather than sticking to the usual public tours, “staff and docents give tours that interest them,” meaning they will be more thought-provoking and interesting that the typical cookie-cutter tours.

In addition to these exclusive tours, there will be other events not open to the public, such as Roman reenactors from Legio VI Victrix, who portray soldiers and officers, officials of the empire, as well as ordinary Roman citizens. While previous years have offered gladiator fashion shows, a decorate-your-own Roman vase activity and special photo ops, Brown says this year, the Villa is “experimenting with an ancient Greco-Roman trivia game” that will feature tables with buzzers, an MC, and great prizes. The Villa will also have temporary tattoos of monsters from Greek mythology and a table for making your own diadems and victory wreaths out of olive tree leaves from the Villa’s garden.

Professor of classics Daniel Richter encourages all his students, both in the Classics department and outside of it, to attend.

“The Getty Villa contains one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of antiquities from the ancient Mediterranean,” Richter said. “Once a year, the Villa’s curators open their doors at night to college students; the curators themselves are in the galleries on College Night, talking to students, explaining the history of the collection, describing the meaning and importance of the objects on view.”

For students, this means a contextualized perspective on the antiquities, which provides a much more pleasant museum experience than merely staring at objects. The context also gives students the opportunity to form their own insights on the importance of the objects, to interact in a unique way with the exhibits by doing more than merely looking at them. “There is also the opportunity to go behind the scenes and witness the work that goes on in the Villa’s world-famous conservation lab.” Richter said. “Oh, and they serve food as well.”

In addition to all this — as if free food, antiquities, behind-the-scenes tours and Roman activities weren’t enough — the Villa will have live D.J. sets by Audiomoe, caricature artists on-site, discounts at the museum’s store and many more surprises. As always, students will be able to explore the museum on their own or with a GettyGuide device should they so desire, but they are encouraged to take advantage of the rare opportunities at hand. Perhaps most exciting, students are encouraged to come in togas. In fact, the Getty even has a video detailing how to properly wear an ancient Roman toga, whether with a twin/full size sheet or actual toga material.

Even if students are uninterested in Greco-Roman antiquities and free food, the Getty encourages students to come indulge in the beauty of the Villa itself and to take advantage of this rare experience with ancient objects. The Villa does everything in its power to make the night a once-in-a-lifetime (or maybe four times, if you go every year of college) experience.

Tickets are free, but reservations (which can be made online or over the phone) are required. College Night is this Tuesday, Nov. 11, from 6-9:30 p.m.