the gri hires people who work at other art museums and colleges to work for a year at gri. after the year is over, the people go back to their old jobs. the goal is to help spread ideas between people who work for different art museums. the residential scholars program seeks to "integrate the often isolated territory of art history into the wider sphere of the humanities". the first class of scholars arrived in 1985–1986; they had their salaries paid for and their housing provided but were under "absolutely no obligation to produce". among the notable scholars was german writer christa wolf in 1993–1994, who wrote the novel "medea: a modern retelling" during her year at gri.