Designed as a half-day networking and training session, this workshop focuses on strengthening arts and cultural response networks by examining shared best practices in network design, governance, and operations.
Open to those who help coordinate a city, regional, or state-level arts or cultural response network, the session creates a dedicated space for peer-to-peer learning and mentoring, with knowledge exchange across 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.
In light of this need, this workshop has been designed for networking, sharing, and training, as follows:
- Opening Presentations by Christie Cain, Emergency Programs Manager with the Alliance for Response (AfR) and Tom Clareson, former Director of the Performing Arts Readiness Project (PAR), to outline the origins of arts and cultural response networks and recent impacts. Followed by Mollie Quinlan-Hayes to discuss the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response's (NCAPER) current programs supporting response networks. 2.
- Roundtable Peer-to-Peer Learning: small-group discussions, divided by response network size and scope, to discuss current strengths and challenges.
- Sustainability Panel Discussion: moderated by Christie Cain with the Alliance for Response, with a panel of current network members, with questions around open versus paid participation, governance categories, cross-disciplinary involvement, and networks’ ability to accept and manage funds.
- Focused Network Training Activity, led by National Heritage Responder Annie Rubel.
