Los Angeles fires deal devastating blow to arts communities

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00:00Firefighters in Los Angeles are managing to hold the line against two massive wildfires

00:05while preparing to attack flare-ups or any new blazes.

00:08Residents are facing dire fresh wildfire warnings and power cuts.

00:13At least two dozen people have died in the disaster and over 12,000 structures

00:18have been damaged or destroyed while more than 80,000 people remain under evacuation orders.

00:24Well the list of artists who've lost their homes or studios in the fires is staggering

00:29for more let's speak now with curator and writer Martha Kurzenbaum who's joining us.

00:35Martha great to have you with us this evening.

00:37What is very often difficult to quantify in disasters

00:41such as this is the loss of creative neighborhoods, various artworks.

00:45Many artists have seen their homes and artworks destroyed.

00:48How significant could these losses prove to be?

00:54Good evening, hello, thank you for having me.

00:57Well first of all I think it's important to understand how important L.A. stands as one

01:01of the beating hearts of the American art world where many artists have established

01:06themselves since the 1960s and in particular the last 10 years you know attracted by its

01:14life quality, legendary lights, cheaper rents and a growing number of museums and galleries

01:21and it's also a city where many wealthy collectors live and so interestingly but

01:28of course also tragically these fires have actually touched two neighborhoods and

01:33devastated two neighborhoods.

01:34One in the northeast of the city called Altadena historically an African-American middle class

01:42neighborhood where many artists, curators or writers have established themselves in

01:46the past couple of years and on the other side of the city on the west side Pacific

01:51Palisades which is actually home to more wealthy Angelenos, most of which are actually art

02:01collectors.

02:01So somehow it's just these two sides of the artwork that has been tragically you know

02:06touched in this fire.

02:08And what have they been telling you about what they've actually lost and what they've

02:12experienced over the past week?

02:14Well I mean these artists are obviously devastated and what I see, what I read, what I hear is

02:22that the emotion is extremely vivid.

02:25Many artists as I just mentioned were living in Altadena and they could not have been prepared

02:31to the you know to how fast and intense the fires ended up being.

02:38You know I mean in LA the entire artistic community is very conscious about global

02:42warming and they all have read you know American writer Joanne Didion who extensively wrote

02:48about the Santa Ana winds, precisely these ones that caused the wildfires last week.

02:56But still like no one could expect such a disaster and I'm thinking to give you some

03:00examples of artists impacted by the wildfires.

03:04I'm thinking of Paul McCarthy who's a truly iconic artist from the 60s and 70s up to today

03:09who has lost actually his home and studio in the Eton fire that destroyed Altadena.

03:16Also a younger artist named Kelly Akashi who actually had an important exhibition planned

03:21in the next couple of weeks and she posted this really devastating picture on Instagram

03:27where you would see one of her blow glass sculptures hanging from a burnt tree as the

03:32only you know reminiscence of her house and studio.

03:36And on top of the works you know what's also very tragic is that many people lost their

03:42you know personal family archives and let's remember that it's LA you know it's a city

03:48in a country that is often considered as history-less you know deprived of history.

03:54So just to give you an idea of how important these archives can be

03:58for a number of families and individuals.

04:01And Martha will these families, will these individuals be compensated for their losses?

04:06What kind of support are they receiving?

04:10Exactly that's that's a very good question.

04:12That's a very tricky question because well you know first of all insurances have declared

04:18that they actually don't have the money to pay back for the losses which amount can be

04:23up to you know dozens of billions of dollars.

04:26Then on top of that a month ago Californian insurances have you know cancelled fire closes.

04:34Now the federal government is trying to force them to ignore them but let's also remember

04:39that in a week from now Trump becomes president and he doesn't really empathize with with

04:46the Democrats and the Democrats California.

04:50But something that actually has really moved me I think and moved you know a lot of people

04:55is how important initiatives coming from the artistic community became and you know there's

05:02a platform called GoFundMe which is a crowdfunding platform where actually already dozens of

05:08thousands of dollars have been raised by artists themselves, by artists friends or by art institutions

05:14like the BRIC for instance which is a non-for-profit art institution in LA and they've raised you

05:19know more than two hundred thousand dollars in just a couple of days.

05:23So what I've been reading on social media and I've been hearing from my friends is that

05:27actually communities work much faster much better than the government right now.

05:32And so far miraculously really the Getty Villa Museum has been spared.

05:37Are there specific protections in place there?

05:42So yes I mean yes and no.

05:44I would say what's specific about the Villa Getty and it's important to remember that it's

05:48it's like you know the second home of the one of the biggest collection in America of

05:55antique works of you know Roman sculptures among others very large collection of works

06:01by Rembrandt or Van Gogh or Monet.

06:04The Villa Getty was built in the Pacific Palisades in 1974.

06:08We also have these images with fire you know surrounding the museum but actually and luckily

06:14the collections were not destroyed and the reason why is indeed the architecture because

06:19in 1974 the Villa Getty was built with a double wall and underground storage spaces that protected

06:26the artworks and also for years now employees were asked to brush off you know all the remaining

06:33wooden twigs on a daily basis so that probably as well helped the museum to be protected.

06:39And you know last but not least it's true that the Villa Getty actually benefited from

06:44a special treatment from you know firefighters who were very focused on preserving the museum.

06:52Martha we'll have to leave it there for now but thank you so much for your time on the

06:55programme this evening. That's curator and writer Martha Kirsenbaum.

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