My wife and I were walking one evening and we saw another couple approaching us. We chit chatted a bit and learned their names were Hubertus and Christa Gassner. They are visiting from Germany and living in Brentwood while Hubertus spends a few months at The Getty as a Getty Scholar.
Getty Scholars, Hubertus explained, come from all over the world and spend a few months at a time here working on their research projects. Hubertus is an art historian, a former director of a big art museum in Hamburg and the author of several books.
The Gassners told us they hadn’t really met any locals, and the next thing we knew, we were invited to the Gassners apartment at a complex on Sunset Boulevard close to Westgate Avenue, where all the Getty Scholars reside. The Getty Scholars don’t have cars. A van shuttles them to and from The Getty each day.
There are usually somewhere between 35 and 40 scholars living at this complex at any one time. At the Gassners, we met Mary Kerrigan of Northern Ireland. Mary is an architect whose area of research is “intentional communities” and how physical settings can facilitate – or get in the way of – real human connections.
My wife and I introduced Mary to Cory Buckner, an architect who lives in Crestwood Hills, up in the Kenter Canyon area. Crestwood Hills began as a “community of intent” if you will, including maintaining strict architectural standards.
Cory is an expert on Crestwood Hills and wrote a book about this neighborhood’s history. She gave Mary a red carpet tour of Crestwood Hills.
Mary also attended the most recent meeting of the Brentwood Community Council. Several residents went out of their way to introduce themselves and welcome Mary to Brentwood. Alas, our new friend Mary will return to Ireland at the end of March.
Others in Brentwood might be willing to host small dinners for a handful of Getty Scholars now and then. I know they would enjoy the opportunity to meet some of “the locals.”
If anyone is interested in hosting a small dinner with a group of Getty Scholars once in a while, let me know. I’ll put together a list of those willing to serve as “goodwill ambassadors” and we’ll get something going. If there is enough interest, I’ll reach out to The Getty to see if we can institutionalize this a bit more. Maybe this could become an ongoing relationship that lasts years and years – a “community of intent.”
If interested, email me at jeff.hall@brentwoodnewsla.com
