It was a total fluke and an unfortunate and sad coincidence that the Fowler Museum at UCLA debuted its “Fire Kinship” exhibition on Jan. 22, 2025 — 15 days after the tragic LA Palisades and Eaton wildfires erupted.
But as Silvia Forni, Shirley and Ralph Shapiro director at the Fowler, explained, the exhibition was in-the-making for over three years.
“The coincidence was devastating, and we were traumatized when thinking about opening this exhibition, knowing about the pain and destruction that our community was living,” said Forni. “But when we went back to the exhibition text, and we asked ourselves, do we need to rewrite the text, thinking about what is happening in LA now, we did not change a word. The message was not that fire is great. The message is: You have to respect the environment; you have to think of yourself as being in a relationship with the environment. If you think in those terms, then you go about your life and your your relationships in a way that ultimately is more respectful of the land.” . . .
Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.
Jessica Koslow 