Arts Disaster and Crisis Preparedness Conference 2026: Full Schedule

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9:00am EDT

Building and Sustaining Cultural Disaster Response Networks

Thursday September 24, 2026 9:00am - 12:30pm EDT

Designed for those who help coordinate a local, regional, or state-level arts or cultural response network, the forum creates a dedicated space for peer-to-peer learning and mentoring, with knowledge exchange across disaster response networks at their varied stages of development.

Currently, through the work of the Alliance for Response and the Performing Arts Readiness project, approximately 40-50 response networks for arts and cultural heritage exist across the United States (American Institute for Conservation 2025; LYRASIS 2026). As these networks continue to evolve and serve their communities, there is a need to understand how they operate - and might operate and collaborate more effectively - across different geographic locations, jurisdictions, and populations.

Agenda:

9 am - 9:30 am

Welcome, Introductions, and Opening Presentations, led by the Alliance for Response and the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response (NCAPER), to discuss AfR and NCAPER’s past and current work supporting response networks.

9:30 am - 10:15 am

Sustainability Panel Discussion moderated by Christie Cain, with a panel of current network leaders, with questions around open versus paid participation, governance categories, cross-disciplinary involvement, and networks’ ability to accept and manage funds.

Break

10:30 am - 11 am

Roundtable Peer-to-Peer learning, small-group discussions, divided by response network size and scope, to discuss current strengths and challenges.

11 am - 12:30 pm

Focused Training Activity, led by Annie Rubel, National Heritage Responder

Outcomes include supporting participants in identifying practical strategies, discovering emerging patterns across networks, and providing national leaders with key takeaways to support networks more broadly in the future.

Speakers

Christina Cain

Emergency Programs Manager, Foundation for Advancement in Conservation, Alliance for Response

Christina Cain is the Emergency Programs Manager for the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation, where she manages the National Heritage Responders, a corps of responders who are trained in disaster recovery for collections, and the Alliance for Response initiative, which brings... Read More →

Tom Clareson

Director/Senior Consultant, Bay Area Arts Readiness Network (BAARN)/LYRASIS

Mollie Quinlan-Hayes

Executive Director, NCAPER/National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response

Mollie works primarily with two institutions committed to the readiness and recovery of artists and arts organizations in crisis. For NCAPER, the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response, she serves as the Executive Director. This arm of her work addresses both... Read More →

Annie Rubel

National Heritage Responder, Heritage Emergency Mgmt, LLC

Thursday September 24, 2026 9:00am - 12:30pm EDT
330AB Gatton Student Center

Peer Learning Cohort, Track 2: Arts and Cultural Response Networks

1:30pm EDT

INVITE ONLY: Resource Mapping Forum for Arts and Cultural Disaster Response Networks

Thursday September 24, 2026 1:30pm - 5:00pm EDT

330AB

This forum is designed as an invited, in-person gathering to bring together national leaders in cultural heritage response with leaders of arts and cultural response networks to discuss the formation, management, and sustainability of cultural response mapping tools that help identify and communicate disaster impacts on cultural sites across their service areas. These maps address a critical need for US federal, state, and local jurisdictions by providing a centralized reporting mechanism to track losses of arts and cultural heritage from disasters, as well as a support infrastructure to advocate for disaster resources for arts, cultural, and creative assets.

The forum’s agenda includes a full-group discussion on the findings from the cultural response network mapping survey, facilitated discussion with leaders of disaster response networks currently undertaking mapping activities, and roundtables to support knowledge exchange among networks on mapping efforts. The session will end with a culminating discussion of mapping patterns, emerging principles, and best practices. Outcomes of the forum will include a formal white paper and future working groups for networks to continue building on mapping efforts.

Speakers

Christina Cain

Emergency Programs Manager, Foundation for Advancement in Conservation, Alliance for Response

Colleen Carroll

Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative

Leah Hamilton

Assistant Professor, Arts Administration and Coordinator, Kentucky Heritage Emergency Response Network, University of Kentucky

Leah Hamilton, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Arts Administration at the University of Kentucky, where she directs the Arts Emergency Management Certificates and leads the Arts Emergency and Disaster Research Initiative (AEDRI), a university-based research lab dedicated to developing... Read More →

Thursday September 24, 2026 1:30pm - 5:00pm EDT
330AB Gatton Student Center

Peer Learning Cohort, Track 2: Arts and Cultural Response Networks

9:00am EDT

1:30pm EDT

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