Embedded Files
September 9th, 2026
Jennifer at Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden in Capalbio, Italy. Photo: Chris Jameson Merchant
Art Recovery LA (ARLA) is pleased to announce that Jennifer Jameson Merchant has been hired as ARLA’s Program Manager.
Born 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.
Jennifer Jameson Merchant is a preservation advocate, public folklorist, and non-profit arts administrator with over 15 years of experience in community-based cultural work in Los Angeles and beyond. Her work has spanned program design and management, grants administration, public programming, communications strategy, technical assistance, and capacity building for artists and cultural heritage organizations.
From 2017 to 2026, she held a series of leadership roles at the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA), most recently as Associate Program Director & Media Director. There, she helped lead the development and implementation of the Mellon Foundation–funded Taproot Fellowship, a national program awarding $50,000 to culture bearers driving social change, and stewarded ACTA’s flagship Apprenticeship Program, supporting intergenerational knowledge exchange between traditional artists and apprentices statewide. Prior to ACTA, Jenn served as Mississippi’s state folklorist, directing the Folk and Traditional Arts program at the Mississippi Arts Commission. She currently serves on the boards of the Artist-Built Environment Network, a national peer network focused on the stewardship of art environments, and Docomomo US/SoCal, supporting education and advocacy around Southern California's Modernist architectural heritage.
Volunteer conservator helps a community member with their object at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, March 2025.
Group photo of volunteers at the ARLA Conservation Clinic at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, April 2025.
The Program Manager will play an important role in helping Art Recovery LA transition from its volunteer-driven emergency response into a sustainable program. In this role, Jameson Merchant will support ARLA’s three primary objectives:
Coordinate and expand ARLA’s Conservation Clinics and community-facing events throughout Los Angeles.
Launch and administer ARLA’s microgrant program to support conservation treatment for community members affected by the 2025 fires.
Support the development of a California Alliance for Response network in partnership with BACC’s Preventive Conservation Department.
“We are excited about the opportunity to have Jennifer join ARLA and contribute to this important next phase of the organization’s work,” said Erin Jue, Principal Conservator of Los Angeles Art Conservation and member of the ARLA Steering Committee. “We’ve accomplished so much over the past year and a half as a volunteer body. This investment from the Getty Foundation will ensure that ARLA’s work is sustainable long term as Southern California builds climate resiliency for cultural heritage.” ARLA is fiscally sponsored by the Balboa Art Conservation Center. For more information, connect with us at artrecoveryla@gmail.com.
This program is made possible with support from Getty.
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