L.A. museums launch $12-million emergency fund for artists hit by the fires
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Some of L.A.’s biggest arts institutions including the J. Paul Getty Trust, LACMA, MOCA and the Hammer Museum are among those backing an emergency reserve for artists and arts workers that stands at $12 million — and is growing.
The L.A. Arts Community Fire Relief Fund is meant to provide immediate support to artists who have lost homes or studios, and arts workers whose livelihoods are affected by the L.A. wildfires. The fund, which organizers say is growing by the day, will be managed and administered by the Center for Cultural Innovation, a nonprofit that since 2001 has helped artists secure financial stability.
“I think it’s the first time, really, that the L.A. arts community has gotten together so quickly, across so many institutions,” said Los Angeles County Museum of Art Director Michael Govan. “The fires are still burning. We’re not out of the woods, and yet the Los Angeles arts network is not only connected within itself, but connected globally.”
Firefighters continued their battle against the devastating fires burning in L.A. County Wednesday. But as dangerous fire weather subsided, there was growing despair and frustration among residents desperate to see what’s left of their homes.
Besides the Getty, LACMA and the Museum of Contemporary Art, other organizations involved in the new fund include East West Bank, the Mellon and Helen Frankenthaler foundations, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Qatar Museums and the Ford Foundation. Contributions have been pouring in from individual philanthropists, corporations and other organizations, such as the family foundation of Mellody Hobson and George Lucas; Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg and their Hearthland Foundation; the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation; the Broad Art Foundation; the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts; Gagosian and Hauser & Wirth galleries; and Frieze.
From the minute the fires started burning in the Pacific Palisades, it became apparent that the arts community was going to take a hard hit, said J. Paul Getty Trust President and Chief Executive Katherine E. Fleming, dismissing the narrative that the seaside community consisted only of wealth and privilege. When Altadena erupted in flames hours later, the scope of the tragedy for creatives across L.A. began to crystallize.
Govan said Altadena might represent “one of the largest concentrations of artists and creative people in the country.”
For a particular creative community, Altadena represented one of the last great affordable places in L.A. to raise a family. The Eaton fire left those homes in ashes, and destroyed one vision of the L.A. dream.
The fund won’t help rebuild the lost neighborhoods, Fleming said, “But there has to be enough support around for multiple workers that they have an option other than just leaving.”
The soaring cost of living already was pushing many artists out of state, and those who remain have grave concerns that another exodus could take shape. Funds will be administered as quickly as possible, Fleming said, with an eye toward making sure fire victims can put down deposits on new housing, buy clothes and continue to feed their families.
That’s the immediate goal. But the fund also has the future in mind, with rebuilding expected to take a long, long time. The hope is for the money to be distributed in phases for months, and possibly years.
Coverage of the fires ravaging Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Pasadena, including stories about the devastation, issues firefighters faced and the weather.
“This is rolling, we’re still gathering funds,” Fleming said. “This isn’t one and done, and it’s really important that it not be one and done.”
With the crisis still in its critical phase, Govan said, it may be hard for those affected to begin to think about what rebuilding might look like. But he has hope that the community can recover.
“This initiative of institutions and individuals coming together so fast ... I think it bodes well for Los Angeles,” he said.
Beginning Monday, fire-affected artists and arts workers in all disciplines can apply for an emergency grant at www.cciarts.org.
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