For Our Neighbors: The Conservation Community in Los Angeles
Presentation Authors: Laleña Vellanoweth, Jen Kim and Kiernan Graves
Blogpost Summary by Sarah Ellison, LACMA Conservation Technician
The Los Angeles fires of 2025 threw our city into a whirlwind of fire, smoke, and ash. In seconds, communities lost homes, loved ones, and treasured belongings. Our familiar blue skies and palm-lined streets disappeared behind opaque orange and red smoke. Nearly everyone knew someone personally affected. Yet what defines Los Angeles is how quickly we show up for one another.
That spirit led to the formation of Art Recovery Los Angeles (ARLA), created to support residents who were able to save cherished belongings and to teach them how to clean and preserve those items at home. In a field often seen as niche and inaccessible, ARLA sought to demystify conservation, showing that basic preservation practices used in museums and private labs can be done with minimal guidance and supplies. What began with twenty volunteer conservators became a powerful mutual aid effort, removing cost barriers and reframing conservation as care.
ARLA hosted four large community clinics at The Armory Center for the Arts, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, The Getty Center, and The Altadena Library, helping over 400 residents. Each site included stations for paper, photographs, objects, paintings, and textiles. Guests signed up for time slots, received intake slips for each item, and met one-on-one with conservators. After treatment, pieces were photographed, safe storage boxes were created, and 230 cleaning kits were distributed for continued care at home.
The clinics offered more than preservation. Conservators listened to stories behind smoke-stained photographs, damaged heirlooms, and rescued keepsakes. They held space for grief, bore witness to loss, and offered steady reassurance. In teaching people how to care for what remained, ARLA helped restore a sense of connection and healing alongside the individual prized possessions themselves.
