The wildfires that devastated parts of Los Angeles in January destroyed more than 18,000 homes and other structures, left dozens of people dead and led to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of others. Among the most severely affected areas was the unincorporated city of Altadena, home to many visual artists who lost their houses and studios. Recovery for artists and everyone else impacted by the 14 separate wildfires throughout the region that month has been a slow, traumatic process.
There is a bit of good news, however. Within a few weeks of the worst effects of those fires, the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, a four-acre artist residency community in Snowmass Village, Colorado, announced it would offer five-week residencies for 15 Los Angeles artists who were impacted by the wildfires; those residencies begin on 15 October. All programme fees for the selected artists (typically $750 for five-week stays) will be waived, their residencies underwritten by a group of individual and foundation supporters, including Bloomberg Philanthropies and Anne and Arnold Porath, among others.
The customary number of artists in residence at Anderson Ranch is 15, all of whom live in a dorm-like facility, are given their own studios and eat communally at its café. Usually, the artists come from across the US, but not this time. “This will be a cohort of people who all have gone through the same experience,” says Elizabeth Ferrill, the artistic director of Anderson Ranch’s artist-in-residence programme. “It will be an opportunity for them to grieve, to share stories and, most importantly, to get back to work. My sense is that most of them, maybe all of them, will hit the ground running.”
After a period of internal discussion, Ferrill says Anderson Ranch put out word through social media of its decision to make its autumn residencies available to Los Angeles artists who had suffered from the wildfires. “Word spread quickly,” she says, and between 30 and 40 artists applied, 15 of whom were selected by an outside jury. All the artists provided “impact statements” about how the wildfires affected them personally and professionally, such as the painter whose works were in a solo exhibition at a gallery in Altadena that burned down and the sculptor whose studio in Altadena burned down, destroying his kilns and other equipment.
“I lost my house and community,” says Joel Zuercher, a painter based in Altadena. “I lost every piece I’ve made pre-2015-ish; stuff from high school, art school, art from friends we’ve collected over the years. We also had a detached garage that burnt down. I had planned on turning that into my full-time studio, but for the time being it was my panel building and drawing space. I lost all my tools, reams of paper, supplies.”
Bryan Omar Juarez, who lives in Los Angeles’s West Adams neighbourhood, didn’t suffer that type of loss, but he still felt the impact because almost all of his retail clients for the interior designs he creates for their public events shut down, leaving him out of work. “I’m framing this residency as a rebirth,” he says. He plans to use his time at the ranch to “create a catalogue of large-scale wall-hung ceramic pieces”.
Ferrill says there has not been a decision on whether to have a second residency period for other artists impacted by the wildfires, but she notes that natural disasters are taking place more regularly. “I think of those poor artists in Asheville, North Carolina, who experienced flooding [from Hurricane Helene] that destroyed their homes and studios,” she says. “We didn’t do anything about that. We’re doing something about this.”
