THE STORIES OF L.A. ALL DAY. ALL IN ONE PLACE.
L.A. as Subject presents
THE 20th ANNUAL LOS ANGELES ARCHIVES BAZAAR
Saturday, October 18, 2025
10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Golden Eagle Ballroom
Cal State University Los Angeles
5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032
This year’s Archives Bazaar is presented by the L.A. as Subject research alliance in partnership with the USC Libraries, the Cal State LA University Library, and the Cal State LA Pathway Programs Office. After 17 years at USC, the event will be held for the first time on the Cal State LA campus. Read the official Press Release for more information about this new collaboration.
The Archives Bazaar is an annual event, free and open to the public, which gives anyone with an interest in the region a one-stop opportunity to interact with dozens of archives, from large institutions to private collectors.
Click here to view the 2025 Archives Bazaar flyer.
Download the 2025 Archives Bazaar Program
Program Schedule - Presentations
10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m.
GOOD NEIGHBORS: CONSERVATION EFFORTS FOLLOWING THE CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES
When the January 2025 wildfires hit Southern California, numerous archives and museums had to mobilize quickly to save their collections. Members of Art Recovery LA and the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles will share strategies and tools they employed during the crisis, focusing on both the immediate actions taken as well as ongoing recovery efforts. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of what they can do should the unthinkable happen.
11:00 a.m.–12:00 noon
SCI-FI FAN COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: A LOST LA SCREENING AND DISCUSSION
Join us for an advance screening of a new episode of Lost LA exploring Southern California’s influence on the evolution of science fiction and its fan communities. Introduced by PBS SoCal’s Angela Boisvert, the episode features rare archival materials and interviews with scholars and curators who trace the region’s pivotal role in shaping sci-fi culture. A panel discussion will follow, moderated by Lost LA co-producer Anne-Marie Maxwell, with Ayana Jamieson (Cal Poly Pomona), Alexis Bard Johnson (ONE Archives at the USC Libraries), and Phoenix Alexander (UC Riverside), delving into Los Angeles as both a setting and catalyst for imagined futures and the communities that grew around them.
12:00 noon–1:00 p.m.
LUNCH BREAK
1:00–1:50 p.m.
VOICES OF OCEANBONE: RIGHTING THE WRONGS OF HISTORY
Lani Cupchoy and Tarisi Vunidilo are faculty members in the Department of Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies at Cal State LA. Their award-winning short film Oceanbone explores the significance of repatriation—the return of ancestral remains, sacred objects, and cultural heritage—to Indigenous communities. Cupchoy and Vunidilo will discuss the concept of repatriation and the important role films play as a creative medium in highlighting collaborative work between international museums and other heritage institutions that support the process of returning cultural materials, including human remains, to communities of origin.
2:00–3:00 p.m.
OUR STAGES, OUR STORIES: LATINX THEATRE IN MODERN LOS ANGELES
Minerva Garcia and Blanca Melchor, cofacilitators of the Latinx Theatre Alliance/Los Angeles, along with Liane Schirmer, project director of the Voces del Teatro Oral History Archive, will discuss the archiving of Latinx theatre in modern Los Angeles from the late 1960s to the present. As volunteers, they faced many challenges, including lack of funding, loss of founding theater practitioners, and declining interest in Latinx theater genres from mainstream theaters. Thanks to L.A. as Subject’s Archives at Risk Committee, the three were able to partner with Cal State LA’s Special Collections to create a repository for six local archives with Latinx theater materials. This conversation will focus on the journey of a “little community archive that could.”
Program Schedule - Workshops & Demonstrations
10:00 a.m.–12:00 noon
POSTAL SERVICE FOR THE DEAD LETTER WRITING PROJECT
Postal Service for the Dead is a collaborative project where people send letters to anyone in their life who has died. Stop by to learn more about the collective’s ongoing effort to digitize, catalog, and share these emotional missives, and help expand death-positive conversations around grief and loss. To learn more, visit: www.postalserviceforthedead.com.
1:00–1:50 P.M.
SALVAGING THE SOAKED: AN NEDCC SHOW-AND-TELL
Community collections often contain delicate archival resources that are highly vulnerable to water damage. In this presentation from the Northeast Document Conservation Center’s (NEDCC) California “Ready—Or Not” Cultural Heritage Emergency Preparedness Project, participants will gain valuable insights into the recovery of damaged items. NEDCC staff will lead a hands-on demonstration that focuses on the process of salvaging and drying water-soaked materials.
2:00–3:00 p.m.
UNWIND LA: SLOW DOWN. BREATHE. THRIVE.
Join us for a restorative workshop crafted to help Angelenos decompress amid the city’s fast pace. Through mindfulness, movement, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills, participants will explore stress-reduction tools like emotional regulation and distress tolerance—paired with calming, hands-on activities to continue vital community work in public spaces.
List of 2025 Archives Bazaar Exhibitors
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- Altadena Historical Society
- Angelus Matchcover Club
- ArtCenter College of Design
- Banning Museum
- Boyle Heights Community Partners
- Caltech
- California Social Welfare Archives
- CSU Dominguez Hills
- CSU Fullerton
- CSU Los Angeles
- CSU Northridge
- CSU Pomona
- Campo de Cahuenga
- Center for Land Use Interpretation
- Center for the Study of Political Graphics
- Center for Stereoscopic Photography, Art, Cinema, and Education
- Chinese Historical Society of Southern California
- Claremont Colleges Library
- Color Compton Art History and Museum
- Culver City Historical Society
- Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society
- Ebell of Los Angeles
- El Pueblo Historical Monument
- Forest Lawn Museum
- Friends of Greystone
- Getty Research Institute
- Glendale Library
- Glendale Coin Club / American Numismatic Association
- Hermosa Beach Museum
- Historical Society of Long Beach
- Historical Society of Monterey Park
- Hollywood Heritage
- La Historia
- Lanterman House
- LA84 Sports Library
- LA County Library Resource Centers
- Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio
- Legacy Library
- Little Tokyo Historical Society
- Living New Deal
- Long Beach Heritage Museum
- Los Angeles Archivists Collective
- Los Angeles City Archives
- Los Angeles City Historical Society
- Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE)
- Los Angeles Maritime Museum
- Los Angeles Philharmonic Archives
- Los Angeles Public Library
- Marina Del Rey Historical Society
- Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
- Museum of the San Fernando Valley
- Northeast Document Conservation Center
- Occidental College
- Orange County Archives
- Pepperdine University
- Petersen Automotive Museum
- Pomona Public Library
- Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum
- Ruskin Art Club
- San Fernando Valley Historical Society
- San Pedro Bay Historical Society
- Self Help Graphics & Art
- Silver Lake History Collective
- South El Monte Arts Posse
- South Pasadena Public Library
- Southern California Genealogical Society and Research Library
- Television Academy Foundation
- UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive
- UCLA Library, Special Collections
- USC Digital Repository
- USC Libraries
- Velaslavasay Panorama
- Venice Heritage Museum
- Visual Communications
- Wende Museum
- Workman & Temple Family Homestead Museum
- Zoellner Quartet Family Archive