Los Angeles continues to experience the turmoil of forest fires and extreme panic among the population as about 40,660 acres in and around the region have burned as of today. Unquestionably, the area doesn’t confine itself to a single entity, and as the officials continue their fight against this nature’s threat, high winds and dry vegetation pose an unignorable obstacle for any near resolution. Some of these entities are cultural spaces, including several artist’s homes, studios, and even museums.
Killing 24 people, as per the medical examiner’s office, and forcing more than 100,000 people to flee their homes, the raging fires of Cal region consumed Bunny Museum and a historic ranch that once belonged to early Hollywood movie star Will Rogers. In response to this, Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry, the actor’s great-granddaughter stated,
“The Rogers family is devastated by the loss of the California ranch and the overwhelming loss of the community. Our hearts go out to all those [neighbours] who have lost their homes.”
On Tuesday, 7 January, the fires of Palisades, one of the most drastic, reached Getty Villa and burned parts of its ground. However, the museum has since confirmed that no harm to the collection or the staff was caused. Operated by J Paul Getty Trust, the museum has implemented significant “fire mitigation efforts,” suggesting the importance of the same for other sites across the world. A statement from the museum’s authorities said,
“Irrigation was immediately deployed throughout the grounds Tuesday morning,”
“Museum galleries and library archives were sealed off from smoke by state-of-the-art air handling systems. The double-walled construction of the galleries also provides significant protection for the collections.”
On January 13th, they stated,
“Both the Getty Center and Getty Villa remain safe from the Palisades Fire, and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
The Getty Center in Brentwood will likely remain closed until Monday, January 20, and the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades is closed until further notice.”
The Thomas Mann House and Villa Aurora, two neighboring structures that date to the 1940s and operate as a museum, have also suffered losses in the fire, with the structures being safe. As per their statement on Wednesday 8 January,
“the impact of the fires on our two houses will only become fully visible in the coming days”
The museum warned that,
“the situation in the immediate vicinity of Villa Aurora is especially dire and we must expect the worst”.
In response to this disaster, several museums remain closed indefinitely, and a few are preparing to reopen or have already reopened to present their exhibitions. Two of the recently reopened ones are Pace and Perrotin and Hauser & Wirth.
In addition to the museums, artists from all around Los Angeles have suffered as well, losing their homes and collections. Multimedia artist Kathryn Andrews lost her home to the Palisades fire and counted 90 Visual artists who have either lost their home or studio. One of these artists is Alec Egan, who was on his track to exhibit at the Anat Ebgi Gallery at the end of this month. It took Alec two consecutive years to prepare for this solo show and all of the work has now been burned to ashes. The gallery took to Instagram to share,
“He was in the final days of completing works for his forthcoming solo show, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳, set to open at the end of January. All of the works were burned in the fire. A new exhibition will be rescheduled at a later date.”
They added,
“We are so grateful Alec and his family are safe and mourn with all who are now facing tragic losses and uncertainty.”
The New York Times on January 10 reported that many artists from Altadena and the Pacific Palisades suffer from irreplaceable losses: artist Diana Thater and conceptual artist T. Kelly Mason lost their home to the fires and also lost camera equipment worth thousands of dollars as well as archive they kept in a temperature-controlled garage. Speaking to the Cultured Mag, Diana shared,
“All I know is that everything we worked for our whole lives is gone. We are devastated and in shock and everything else you can imagine.”
Following these events, more than 200 GoFundMe pages have been set up, with Grief and Hope raising $500K to help art workers start over.
One of the most heart-wrenching stories from these is of artist Jordan Mitchell who narrowly escaped the Eaton fires and lost his father, Anthony Mitchell, and brother, Justin Mitchell, in addition to his family home. The GoFundMe page that aims to raise $170K, being have raised $162K of it, explains,
“The fire not only destroyed Jordan’s childhood home in Altadena, but it also tragically took the lives of his father and brother. Jordan is now facing an overwhelming road to recovery—physically, emotionally, and financially.”
As the fire remains uncontained, it is only the near future that will depict what it meant for the art and the losses for the industry.
Featured Image: Palisades Fire; CAL FIRE_Official, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Related Reads.
