American art historian
Deborah Marrow (October 18, 1948 – October 1, 2019) was a foundation director and art historian who spent a 36-year career with the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles, California. She worked at the Trust from 1983 to 2019 including two assignments as interim president and chief executive officer and 30 years as Director of the Getty Foundation.
Early life and education.
She was born in New York City on October 18, 1948, to Adele (Wolin) Marrow and Seymour A. Marrow. She was raised in Scarsdale, New York, attending Quaker Ridge Elementary School and Scarsdale High School. She was an exceptional student and worked on many school activities. She was a devoted camper at Camp Walden in Denmark, Maine, where her daughter, Anna, and her sister, Jane Marrow Bemis, also attended.
In 1966, she started college at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She graduated "cum laude" from Penn with a degree in history in 1970. She went on to obtain a master's degree in art history at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1972. She went back to Penn and finished her PhD in art history in 1978. Her major and minor fields were baroque art and modern art, respectively.
Personal life.
Marrow met her husband, Michael J. McGuire, at the University of Pennsylvania on the third night of her freshman year (1966). They were married for 48 years and had two children, Anna Marrow McGuire and David Marrow McGuire. She married Michael on June 19, 1971, in a simple ceremony at her parents' house in Scarsdale. Marrow and Michael spent a year in London, Paris and Florence in 1976-77 while she did her thesis research. She moved to California with Michael in 1977.
Early career.
Before, during, and after obtaining her PhD, she was a teacher. In the 1970s, he taught art history at local colleges in the Philadelphia area. In California, she finished her doctoral thesis on the art patronage of Maria de' Medici (1978) after which she taught at colleges and universities in the Los Angeles area. She was an adjunct assistant professor at Occidental College in 1979, 1981 and 1982, and she was a field faculty advisor at Goddard College from 1975 to 1979. In the late 1970s, she was managing editor and member of the editorial board of the feminist publication "Chrysalis".
J. Paul Getty Trust.
In 1982, she was hired as a consultant by the then nascent J. Paul Getty Trust to help vet senior staff being considered for the growing organization. In 1983, she started work with the Getty as publication coordinator in the new publications program. She was appointed director of the Getty Grant Program (now the Getty Foundation) in 1989 where she spent the rest of her career.
During her tenure at the Getty she was called upon to become the acting director of the Getty Research Institute (1999–2000), and in 2000, she assumed the additional role of dean for external relations for the Getty. She was asked to step in as interim president and chief executive officer during two periods. During her first assignment as interim CEO in 2006–07, she led the Getty to overcome difficult governance challenges. As many people have stated, during this period she restored the “trust” in the Getty Trust. Her second stint as interim CEO (2010–11) came about due to the untimely death of James Woods. Marrow was regarded by art history professionals as a leader and consummate art historian who led many international efforts to improve the field.
A notable achievement by Marrow was developing the concept for which was celebrated throughout Southern California in 2011-2012. Under her leadership, the foundation awarded $28 million in grants to dozens of cultural institutions across Southern California to tell the story of the Los Angeles art scene. Pacific Standard Time highlighted contemporary art in post-World War II Los Angeles and involved dozens of museum exhibitions, a performance art festival, public programming and more than 100 gallery shows. (2017–18) extended that collaborative model to fund exhibitions and scholarly research focused on Latin American and U.S. Latino art in Southern California. In addition to generating attention to a little studied field, PST: LA/LA involved nearly 2.8 million participants.
In her work at the Getty, she traveled throughout six of the seven continents.
Upon the announcement of her retirement in 2018, the Getty Board of Directors renamed an internship program that she founded in her honor: the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship Program. Over 27 years, the Internship Program has funded more than 3,000 students working at local arts institutions including museums throughout the southern California area.
University of Pennsylvania.
She was a dedicated alumna of Penn. In 2001, she served on the committee celebrating 125 years of women at Penn. Marrow joined the Board of Trustees in 2003. Her tenure on the Board included membership on the Executive; Nominating; Local, National, and Global Engagement; Facilities and Campus Planning; and Honorary Degrees and Awards Committees. She also served on the Academic Policy Committee, which she chaired for six years. In 2004, Marrow was part of the consultative committee that recommended to the Trustees Amy Gutmann for election as Penn's eighth president. She was an Overseer at the Weitzman School of Design and she served as a member of the Penn Alumni Board of Directors, the Trustees' Council of Penn Women and the Southern California Regional Advisory Board. In 2013, she was named a Charter Trustee in honor of her contributions. She served as an Emerita Trustee until her death.
Professional associations.
Marrow served many organizations in the fields of art history, museums, preservation, and philanthropy. She served on the board of Town Hall Los Angeles. She was a board member of the Courtauld Institute of Art, the University of California Humanities Research Institute, and Southern California Grantmakers. She was a member of the National and International Committees for the History of Art, the Save America’s Treasures Committee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in partnership with the White House Millennium Council, the International Committee of the Council on Foundations, the Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art, and the American Association of Museums task force that produced the report "Excellence and Equity".
Awards and honors.
In 2019, Marrow received the Award for Distinguished Service to Museums from the American Alliance of Museums. She was honored by the American Institute for Conservation in 2019 with the President's Award in recognition of her substantial support of research and education in conservation. Marrow received the President's Non-Profit Leadership Award from East Los Angeles College in 2017, which was widely acknowledged by certificates of appreciation from political and cultural leaders throughout the Los Angeles area. In 2012, she received the Centennial Award from the College Art Association for leadership and service to the field. Marrow received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, "Honoris Causa" from Goucher College in 1983 where she gave the commencement address.
References.
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