Objectives

Getty Unshuttered is an innovative multi-platform teen arts program offered by the J. Paul Getty Museum and inspired by Genesis Motor America. Beginning with our belief that everyone is an artist, we created an accessible online platform that empowers teens to change the world through photography--both by telling their stories and advocating for causes that they support. Unshuttered started with an onsite photography mentorship program in which a group of local Los Angeles teens were mentored by teaching artists to build photography and storytelling skills. The teens then became ambassadors for the Getty Unshuttered app, website, and social channels. The online platforms provide photography tips and invite teens from around the world to share their own stories and photographs. This unique project fosters students' ability to see and share their world, and empowers them to use photography to amplify their voices. The first year of the program culminated with an immersive photography showcase celebrating the work of the Getty Unshuttered community. The Getty Center was transformed into a living canvas using projection mapping to display photographs submitted to the app. The Getty also presented LA #UNSHUTTERED: Teens Reframing Life in Los Angeles, a special exhibition of photographs by Los Angeles high school students who participated in Unshuttered. Together, the app, the showcase, and the exhibition work as a platform that empowers teens to become artists and activists and invites them to exchange ideas as part of a global community of photographers.

Strategy and Execution

In order to engage local and global audiences, the Getty Unshuttered program was implemented through a series of phases:

Onsite program:

• Unshuttered kicked off with an 8-week photography mentorship program for 23 high school aged students from underserved communities in Los Angeles. This program was designed for teens not usually able to take part in creative enrichment programs due to barriers such as competing needs to work, the need to care for other family members, or lack of transportation. Students came from low income neighborhoods, the foster care system, and other high risk settings. The Getty provided transportation and food to all of the students as well as access to professional cameras and equipment.
• Over the course of the program students learned fundamental photography skills and developed a series of photographs that convey a powerful visual narrative around a social cause or personal story. Each of the students identified a social issue of personal importance to explore through photography, addressing questions of identity, trauma, representation, and equity. The workshops were facilitated by Getty staff and a team of four teaching photographers.

The Unshuttered App and web platform:

• In the second phase, we launched the Unshuttered app and website. These online platforms feature teens from the onsite workshops inviting users from around the world to participate in photography challenges. Each creative challenge video tells the story of the challenger, offers photography tips, and encourages other young artists to post their own photo responses.
• App users are invited to create an account and respond to the challenge videos by uploading their own photographs along with a title and caption. Users can also browse all the uploaded photographs leaving "likes" on images.
• The Unshuttered app, website, and supporting social media channels launched successfully in March of 2018. Unshuttered was featured in the "Apps we love" section of iTunes and has been downloaded over 16,000 times to date.

The Unshuttered Celebration and Showcase:

• Getty Unshuttered culminated with a site wide celebration at the Getty Center in Los Angeles in June, 2018. The museum campus was literally transformed into an interactive canvas. Over 1000 pictures uploaded to the app were featured in a projection mapping experience created in collaboration with the USC School for Cinematic Arts. Over 1,800 attended this amazing evening of photography, music, and art.
• On the same night the museum proudly opened its doors to LA #UNSHUTTERED: Teens Reframing Life in Los Angeles. This special exhibition showcases the work of the 23 Los Angeles-area high school students who lifted their cameras and their voices to advocate for social justice in the Getty Unshuttered program. The images displayed in this installation represent their stories of life in Los Angeles. The showcase is on display until January 2019.

Results

Unshuttered has very successfully met its goals of giving teens agency and an accessible platform for sharing their photographs. The onsite workshop's combination of photography mentorship, facilitated activities, and access to the Getty's collection created a dynamic environment that inspired and empowered the 23 participating students to develop as creative storytellers and artists. Their voices inspired the Unshuttered online platforms, which have been incredibly successful with a community of users that has been steadily growing since launch. We have had over 10 million impressions online across various platforms. The Unshuttered app has over 16k downloads on iTunes, and our website has over 24k page views. The student's challenge videos have also reached a wide audience with over 290k views on YouTube. The culminating celebration had over 1,800 attendees, and LA #UNSHUTTERED: Teens Reframing Life in Los Angeles has had over 30k visitors and counting. Our team is dedicated to improving Unshuttered in its second iteration. We will continue creating inspirational content that invites teens to be part of the Getty's creative community. We also have a commitment to further offering robust online educational curriculum.

Unshuttered contains many of the features that are recognized as essential to student success in school and beyond: mentorship, creative agency, opportunities for leadership, and deliberate exercise of the 21st Century skills of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, and self-direction. We believe that this program will set a new standard for youth programming with the potential to transform lives through arts education.

Media