Altadena Library to Help Lead $1.2 Million Countywide Effort to Preserve Wildfire Memories

A new $1.2 million Mellon Foundation grant will help Los Angeles County preserve the memories and artworks of communities impacted by the January 2025 wildfires, with Altadena included among the communities the project aims to serve, officials announced Friday.

The funding supports a multi-agency initiative titled “LA County Cultural Climate Commons: Community Memory Lab and Living Archive,” involving L.A. County Library, the Department of Arts and Culture, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Altadena Library District and their respective foundations. Grant recipients began the project in January, and it is expected to span through June 2028.

The project aims to preserve the lived experiences, cultural heritage and collective memories of the Altadena and Pacific Palisades communities, which were burned down in January 2025. Funding was intended to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the devastating wildfires.

Key components include a Mobile Memory Lab organized by L.A. County Library, an artist/archivist-in-residence program, and a climate-focused digital hub. The Mobile Memory Lab will offer digital archiving and oral history programs, with events focusing on Altadena and the Palisades to help bring together fire survivors, who can share and archive their stories and experiences.

The artist/archivist-in-residence program will bring together art historians, local artists and arts groups to work with the county Department of Arts and Culture to identify local legacy artists and offer community artmaking workshops. Art produced in these events will be preserved as part of a new digital archive and entered into the L.A. County Civic Art Collection.

Local cultural stories, research and projects focused on climate change will be produced by the climate-focused digital hub.

L.A. County Library Director and County Librarian Skye Patrick and City Librarian John Szabo thanked the Mellon Foundation for the grant and support of the project. “Through this unique cross-jurisdiction library and arts and culture partnership, we will support healing and resilience by safeguarding community histories and stories through art and archiving and developing sustainable models for cultural preservation,” Patrick said in a statement.

Altadena Library District Director Nikki Winslow echoed her colleagues’ sentiments. “The Eaton Fire devastated our beloved Altadena, but it hasn’t broken its spirit,” Winslow said in a statement. “Every person has a st