Arts Disaster and Crisis Preparedness Conference 2026

The 2022 fire that destroyed the Masonic Temple in Zanesville, Ohio, serves as a harrowing case study for arts administrators, urban planners, and community leaders. Built in 1902 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Temple had evolved from a fraternal lodge into a vital artist center. It housed many studios where local creatives worked and sold their art. In a single night, a fire sparked by a poorly extinguished cigarette reduced this century of history to ash, displacing an entire creative ecosystem.


This session moves beyond the tragedy to explore the mechanics of Arts Emergency Management as a tool for both protection and healing. The loss in was not just architectural; it was the destruction of a collaborative spirit. In the aftermath, the community shifted from a unified "we" to a fractured "me not them" as artists scrambled for individual studio spaces across the county.


By analyzing the fire, this case study addresses three critical pillars of disaster resilience: proactive risk mitigation,  digital stewardship and documentation, and rebuilding the social infrastructure. The first pillar examines how simple fire safety protocols and other emergency management techniques can be in place in case there is a fire, which indeed occurred, and how "living history" buildings require specialized emergency management plans that balance historic preservation with modern safety standards.


One of the most profound losses was the absolute disappearance of years of work. The talk explores how documenting art digitally acts as a form of cultural stewardship, ensuring an artist’s legacy survives even if their physical canvas does not. Finally, we discuss how emergency management can honor the past by formalizing the bonds of the community. By creating shared safety compacts and mutual aid agreements, arts organizations can transform the memory of the Masonic Temple into a pathway for a more resilient, connected, and protected future.