Name: Building and Sustaining Cultural Disaster Response Networks
Start: 2026-09-24T09:00:00-0400
End: 2026-09-24T12:30:00-0400

Building and Sustaining Cultural Disaster Response Networks

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

330AB

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

Arts Disaster and Crisis Preparedness Conference 2026

Christina Cain

Tom Clareson

Mollie Quinlan-Hayes

Annie Rubel

Attendees (18)

Get help with the event

Arts Disaster and Crisis Preparedness Conference 2026

Christina Cain

Tom Clareson

Mollie Quinlan-Hayes

Annie Rubel

Attendees (18)

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