Arts Disaster and Crisis Preparedness Conference 2026

A tornado cut a devastating path through the heart of Mayfield, Kentucky in December 2021. Residents experienced a painful collective trauma, with much of the historic downtown destroyed and few landmarks or spaces remaining where people could connect and gather. The slow, patient work of recovery in this close-knit community began with the Mayfield Rebuilds Committee, culminating in a final report published in December 2022. The report identified more than twenty projects. Throughout, the community sought to integrate arts and culture into their plans to rebuild, including:


This bold vision built a strong foundation for the community to move forward. The arts have played an important role and continue to shape how Mayfield heals, recovers, and celebrates its identity. Community design efforts, led by professionals and envisioned by students, provided a promise of what was to come and helped the community prioritize and make progress towards their goals. Benefit events, both small and large, helped boost morale at critical points after the storm and provided critical financial infusions. Vision became reality with the grand opening of the Farmer’s Market in summer 2025. It has become a much-needed gathering space celebrating local agricultural and creative bounties. Helen LaFrance’s famous mural at St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church was saved and preserved, and a new mural was recently completed and dedicated to her and fellow African American artist Ellis Wilson at Dunbar Park. When communities experience significant loss, people hold on to things that give them a sense of collective identity. The arts provide a way to rally around a common cause, helping rebuild that shared identity, stitching back together what was lost.


Nearly five years into the recovery effort, Mayfield has valuable lessons to share:

This panel discussion highlights the work of Architecture Sarasota, an organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Sarasota School of Architecture in Southwest Florida and their collaboration with the National Park Service. After a series of storms impacted architectural significant properties in 2024, the organization began documenting and evaluating climate vulnerabilities. One novel aspect of this work was the creation of an exhibition to educate and engage the public on significance, risk, and potential adaptation. Historic sites and cultural landscapes serve as early indicators of environmental stress. Creative practitioners are redefining preservation and emergency response by pairing tradition with adaptive solutions.


Architecture Sarasota has been at the forefront of this effort. They have been documenting at risk heritage, elevating community memory, and demonstrating how legacy architecture can evolve rather than vanish. Responding to the combined storms of Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton in 2024, the organization in collaboration with the NPS’s National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, and state and local partners, developed a model approach that integrated cultural resources survey and vulnerability assessment. Under the National Disaster Recovery Framework, the Department of the Interior assisted in identifying this project as part of Florida's disaster recovery plan as an important step in understanding the risks and unmet needs for architectural resources in damaged areas throughout the state. In addition to reports and recommendations, the work included the creation of a climate vulnerability exhibition to engage the public. The art exhibit featured historic sites and proposed solutions to give a visual interpretation to the assessment and risk data points.


Architectural Sarasota and the NPS have crafted a unique work product that seeks to frame climate risk not as a distant hazard but as a design problem that invites curiosity, imagination, and new forms of collective stewardship.

The arts are increasingly recognized for their role in supporting disaster readiness, response and recovery. Beyond their contributions to economic recovery and tourism, arts and cultural programming can also play a meaningful role in communities’ social and emotional recovery. The arts can bring people together, restore a sense of normalcy, and offer offer ways to express experiences that may be difficult to put into words. They can also create space to share stories, honor loss, and reconnect with cultural identity and community strengths. In recent years, the National Endowment for the Arts has broadened its focus on disaster programming. This work includes community-based projects, cross-sector collaboration with state and local partners, and the development of a toolkit designed to help artists, cultural organizations, community leaders, and military-connected organizations integrate the arts into their communities’ cultural, social, and emotional recovery. Much of this work has occurred in partnership with Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network, which brings expertise from over a decade of trauma-informed work with military connection populations, both in healthcare and in the broader communities where they live.


This panel will share insights from these initiatives, including Creative Forces’ disaster pilot, which is being explored in multiple communities. The discussion will highlight work from the Appalachian region, and particularly Western North Carolina, to illustrate how these approaches supported communities following Hurricane Helene. Panelists will discuss lessons learned from implementing arts and culture initiatives in rural disaster-affected communities, including building local partnerships, supporting cultural continuity, and creating spaces for connection and collective meaning-making. Panelists will also discuss key lessons learned, including the importance of building relationships across sectors, working in ways that align with local culture and strengths, and adapting approaches to community contexts. The discussion will highlight how creative engagement can complement existing disaster efforts and contribute to more connected, responsive systems of care. Together, this panel will explore how arts and culture can move from being viewed as an optional addition to disaster work toward being recognized as an integral part of how communities support one another through disruption and change.

This panel brings together expertise from the National Weather Service and Kentucky Emergency Management to help arts and cultural leaders better understand how weather warnings are developed and communicated, and the ways that arts and cultural organizations can best engage with first responders before, during, and after an emergency.

Jane Marie Wix, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, Kentucky, will provide an overview of how weather forecasts and warnings are developed, communicated, and interpreted. She will explain what different warning types mean for situational awareness and decision‐making across hazards such as tornadoes, flooding, and severe storms. She will also share accessible tools that artists and cultural managers can use to translate technical weather information into timely, protective actions.

Jason York, Area 7 Regional Response Manager with Kentucky Emergency Management, will discuss how emergency management operates across the Commonwealth using NIMS as a common framework. He will explain who first responders are, how command and coordination structures function, and why shared terminology and advance relationship‐building are critical during emergencies. Jason will outline what emergency managers and first responders need to know about arts and cultural organizations—such as priority assets, building layouts, and collections risks—as well as what cultural leaders should understand about emergency management roles, protocols, and expectations.

Following brief presentations, the panel will shift to a moderated discussion of real‐world experiences and case examples, highlighting lessons learned and practical takeaways for cultural organizations. Moderated by network administrators for the Kentucky Heritage Emergency Response Network (KHERN), the conversation will focus on how arts and cultural organizations can move from reactive response to proactive preparedness by aligning their planning efforts with all‐hazards and NIMS principles.