Project co-led by Thiago Puglieri receives $330,000 Getty grant

Sean Brenner | March 3, 2026

UCLA’s Thiago Puglieri and investigators from two other institutions have received a $330,000 grant from the Getty Foundation to study community-engaged research methods, and to train scholars in the practice.

Puglieri is a professor of art history and a member of the UCLA/Getty Interdepartmental Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. Much of his research involves an approach called community-based participatory research, or CBPR — incorporating members of the communities he studies as collaborators in the studies rather than merely treating them as subjects.

The two-and-a-half-year grant, through Getty’s Connecting Art Histories initiative, is for a new project developed by Puglieri along with Claudia Mattos Avolese of Tufts University and Adam T. Sellen of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

The initiative will fund coursework, field research and workshops for nine graduate students — some  Indigenous and some non-Indigenous — focused on three traditional Latin American communities. The students will learn from art historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, museum professionals, conservation scientists and leaders from the Indigenous communities.

“By uniting three co-PIs and three distinct communities from Brazil and Mexico, this project facilitates a powerful platform for the shared production of knowledge and the exchange of diverse epistemologies,” Puglieri said. “It will develop new participatory methodologies within the field of art history, equipping the next generation of researchers with the vital ethical and technical skills required for meaningful community-based partnerships.

“We are deeply grateful for the Getty Foundation’s support, which allows us to expand our research while mentoring graduate students at the intersection of Indigenous arts, heritage science and community engagement.”

Related: Thiago Puglieri explores nature’s most precious color