The UCLA/Getty Master’s Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials is unique in that it combines the resources of both the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and the Getty Conservation Institute with facilities located at both the Cotsen Institute and the Getty Villa.

On the UCLA campus, the program is housed in the Cotsen Institute’s facilities in the Fowler Museum. The Institute provides administrative offices, classroom facilities, student lounge facilities, and a library/study space for students, faculty, and administrators. This location also houses the analytical laboratory for the program.  This lab contains a binocular microscope, a polarized light microscope and a metallurgical microscope.  The lab at the Cotsen Institute is additionally equipped for metallographic sampling and sample preparation. Analytical instrumentation for organic and inorganic analysis, such as x-ray fluorescence, x-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, are also located here.  Additional instrumentation is made available through the various labs and academic departments at UCLA, and current students have benefited from these collaborations for their analytical work through use of a Scanning Electron Microscope with Energy Dispersive Spectrometry and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. 

 In addition to the analytical laboratory, the program has dedicated conservation laboratories and facilities for student and faculty at the Getty Villa in Malibu. The conservation training labs are located in a purpose built building where students are able to take classes and do their practical work in two large laboratory spaces.  A photography studio, also equipped for examination using ultraviolet and infrared light, as well as photomicrography, is located here.  This facility also includes an ancillary classroom, a student workroom with a small library and computers, and an art storage space for the storage and examination of objects and materials. In addition to the facilities available within Getty laboratories, students have supervised access to the x-radiographic equipment at the Getty Villa, allowing for the examination of both small and large-scale objects.

Students in the conservation program have access to libraries at both institutions.  With the combination of the various libraries located on the UCLA campus and the collections of the Getty Research Institute and Getty Conservation Institute, students have access to an incredible number of bibliographic resources for their academic and conservation research. 

The conservation program collaborates with area museums to provide students with access to ethnographic and archaeological materials. The Fowler Museum makes some of its collections available to the program for instructional purposes. Collections from other area museums such as the Getty Museum, the Natural History Museum, LACMA, the Museum of the American West, and the Southwest Museum of the American Indian may also be made available.