Borne of the Los Angeles wildfires that devastated families in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades in 2025, Art Recovery LA (ARLA) was awarded a transformative $250,000 Getty Foundation grant to continue helping affected communities rescue and conserve their cultural collections and heirlooms. ARLA consists of a collective of Southern California based art conservators whose mission is to provide critical information and support to institutions, private collections, and individuals impacted by emergencies while conserving artifacts for future generations. “Getty balances the international scope of our work with a strong commitment to local communities, including the ongoing work to recover from last year’s devastating wildfires,” says Lori Wong, senior program officer from the Getty Foundation who oversees conservation grantmaking. “This grant expands Getty’s partnership with ARLA by supporting additional conservation clinics, strengthening coordination among cultural heritage agencies and first responders, and enhancing emergency preparedness for when the next disaster strikes.” 

The 2025 LA Wildfires resulted in loss of life and destruction of thousands of homes, which caused irreparable damage to personal heirlooms, family archives, art collections, artists’ studios, and the holdings of cultural institutions. Information and resources were immediately mobilized to bring support and relief to the many families, businesses, and communities affected. When natural disasters occur, immediate networks of emergency response are activated. Most people are familiar with some of these networks, such as fire, medic, shelter, food banks, and the many services and donation centers run by nonprofits and civic entities. When the critical needs are addressed and the dust settles, in come a next layer of emergency response: Cultural Heritage First Responders. 

For many families who suffered a complete loss, sifting through the rubble meant finding just one or two precious mementos: a wedding ring, a child’s toy, a soot-covered baby blanket. Other families who were spared complete loss were left dealing with a home full of memories now covered in ash or soot and the toxic residues that are carried with them. For cultural heritage preservation professionals, these items are more than just objects.They represent family stories, cultural narratives, and community legacies, and so the moment presented a call to action. 

In response, a coalition of professional art conservators, community organizations, and community advocates rapidly mobilized to provide triage conservation services to affected residents, formalizing their efforts under the ARLA banner in partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the Conservation Association of Los Angeles, and other cultural institutions such as the Altadena Library, the Armory, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and Getty. 

This year, the commitment continues, and deepens in an effort to formalize this work. With the Getty grant, ARLA will continue to provide treatment clinics to support victims of the 2025 fires, while also preparing for future emergencies. This includes supporting the efforts to relaunch the statewide Alliance for Response (AFR) Network to align ARLA’s efforts with other cultural heritage first responders across the state. 

This renewed commitment for ARLA is made possible through a recent fiscal sponsor and program partnership with the Balboa Art Conservation Center, and most importantly a critical investment in ARLA’s vision by the Getty Foundation. To kick off this new era, ARLA is hiring its first Program Manager through an open application process. Information about this exciting opportunity to be a central part of ARLA can be found here. 

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