A Portrait of Hope: Inside The Making Of The LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund

In response to the wildfires, major U.S. art institutions launched the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, granting up to $10,000 each to impacted artists and art workers.

Getty president and CEO Katherine Fleming and Getty Villa staff member Vlad Slavin hug during a walkthrough of the Getty Villa after the fire.

Just eight days after the wildfires began, a number of major U.S. art institutions came together to execute and announce a relief fund for artists impacted by the disaster. Led by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund offers artists and arts workers in all disciplines whose residences, studios or places of work have been affected by the devastating Los Angeles fires to apply for grants up to $10,000. As of the first week of February, the originally $12 million fund is at $14 million and growing thanks to a coalition inclusive of the Hammer Museum, LACMA, MOCA, East West Bank, Mellon Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Qatar Museums and Ford Foundation and numerous individual and foundation donors, such as Karyn Kohl, Terri and Jerry Kohl, Trellis Art Fund, Teiger Foundation and many others.

Getty Foundation director Joan Weinstein helped spearhead the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund.

“We were hearing from artists and arts workers,” Getty Foundation director Joan Weinstein shares, recalling the early days of the wildfires. “Many of us knew people who lost their homes. We had Getty staff that lost their homes. We had wonderful colleagues throughout the region who were losing their homes… It was this recognition that this was going to have a huge impact,” she adds.

View of the Palisades Fire from the Getty Center.

“Within 48 hours or so, a large contingency of major institutions, including the Getty and then the Hammer and LACMA and MOCA came together wanting to create not only a platform so people who wanted to give money could do that but also a place that could very quickly and adequately put together a platform for distribution,” shares Johanna Burton, the Maurice Marciano Director of The Museum of Contemporary Art.

Flames reached the Getty Villa grounds on Jan. 7.

The urgency was even felt from the East Coast. “We looked on in horror at this place that is so exemplary in terms of its powerful, rich, multicultural vision was facing such a terrifying catastrophe,” says Elizabeth Alexander, president of the New York-based Mellon Foundation. “From the first day, we were all in communication and thinking about how we could be helpful.”

Thanks to a combined effort by the Getty Villa staff and LAFD firefighters, the museum is still standing.

Administered by the Center for Cultural Innovation, the initiative’s goal is to release funds as quickly as possible after the Feb. 18 application deadline. Then, it will be time to problem-solve the long-term post-wildfire issues, like archive rebuilding, the standardization of natural disaster prep and continued support of the people who make up the entire art ecosystem, like maintenance and public transit workers alongside artists.

Visitors pose in front of the Getty Center, which is made of highly fire-resistant stone, concrete and protected steel.

“Los Angeles has really become a major center for the arts, and we want to make sure that stays vibrant,” says Weinstein. “Part of that is making sure that the artists who are impacted stay in L.A. It’s a very diverse community, so we want to do what we can to support those individuals because that will keep L.A. a thriving place.”

See also: To L.A., With Love: Influential Voices Share What Makes It The City Of Angels