Many first hear about NCAPER through a presentation or workshop at a conference or professional gathering. Content can be tailored to audiences ranging from artists and arts funders to elected officials, arts organizations, emergency managers, and first responders. Our goals are to encourage and assist the arts sector in developing readiness and mitigation plans; to help city, county, and state representatives retain creatives and engage them in response and recovery efforts; and to help the arts and emergency sectors better know and understand each other.
NCAPER welcomes invitations to present at conferences and convenings; contact jnewcomb@ncaper.org.

RECENT & UPCOMING EVENTS INCLUDE:

​

How To Get Ready for Anything! Easy Steps for Artists & Creatives, Kentucky Arts Council webinar March 18, 2025, 2PM ET – Free. Part of the Creative Industry Summit Series.

 

California for the Arts Creative States Coalition webinar 3/20/25

​

Community Recovery Through Arts and Culture, Performing Arts Readiness webinar, April 3, 2025, 2PM ET – Free.

Practical Readiness Strategies for Artists, California Arts & Culture Summit, Sacramento CA, April 22, 2025

​

Restoring Place, Rebuilding Community
Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN) Annual Convening, Los Angeles, CA, Monday, May 19, 2025
In the aftermath of catastrophic events, recovery is not only a physical process but a profoundly emotional and social one. Due to their deep connection to places and their role as stewards of shared heritage, cultural districts are uniquely positioned to support communities in navigating the complex pathways of rebuilding—offering spaces for collective healing, cultural preservation, and reimagined futures. Yet, when disaster
strikes, the immediate path forward is rarely clear or easy to plot. Bringing together global perspectives from cities recently impacted by unprecedented disasters, this session offers a practical look at how cultural districts can enact creative recovery initiatives that address trauma, rebuild social bonds, and strengthen community identities.

​

Twin Realities: The Arts as Disaster Recovery Partners and Clients

NVOAD/National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster 2025 Conference, Louisville, KY, Thursday, May 22

The arts are critical in helping communities heal and recover after disaster, while simultaneously needing to be served by the emergency management system. These twin realities offer us the opportunity to make a significant difference by building stronger mutual understanding and connections.

Recent disasters have magnified the role of the arts in community health and recovery, while revealing the confusion and challenges many artists and nonprofit arts organizations experience in navigating assistance channels after a crisis. With a greater understanding of how the arts operate, and can be part of the response and recovery process, responders can support and access partners and resources they otherwise may overlook. Experiences from the recent Kentucky tornadoes and floods, Lahaina wildfires and Hurricane Helene will serve as the backdrop for our conversation. The conversation will be informed by impact data from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and “Kentucky Arts in Disaster: An Impact Report,” published by the University of Kentucky, which dives into these twin realities and offers recommendations based on the 2021 Eastern Kentucky tornadoes and 2022 Western Kentucky flood events.   

​

Disaster Preparation and Recovery
“Ascend,” League of American Orchestras Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, Thursday, June 12, 2025
Orchestras, like any business or home, need to prepare in advance for disruption that can result from emergencies like natural disasters and public safety threats. Given all the scenarios that require more hands on deck to mitigate damage, assess threats, and forge ahead after a disruption happens, is your orchestra prepared? Learn about essential steps every orchestra can take today to set in place plans to limit damage and continue to deliver on mission.
Speaker(s): Daniel Crupi, Executive Director, Asheville Symphony; Joseph McKenna, President & CEO, Sarasota Orchestra; Jan Newcomb, Executive Director, National Coalition for Arts Preparedness & Emergency Response (NCAPER); and Kelly Waltrip, Executive Director, Denver Young Artists Orchestra​

​

​​​​​​ARCHIVES

The Artists Thrive Summit 2024: Building a Thriving Network, August 13-16, 2024
​NCAPER Executive Director Jan Newcomb and Air Collaborative Executive Director Beth Flowers present two artist-focused sessions:

 

Creative Resilience: Supporting Artists and Organizations Through Disaster
In the face of growing threats like wildfires, floods, and social unrest, the arts community needs strong support. This session explores the resources and experience offered by organizations dedicated to helping artists and cultural institutions weather disasters. We'll delve into the disaster cycle, available
programs, and essential steps for building a personal or organizational preparedness plan.

Getting the Choir Back Onstage and In the Loft: How the arts sector engages vulnerable communities
There is growing interest in how the arts sector continues to successfully engage vulnerable communities in the face of our current permacrisis of disasters. The development of public-private partnerships and networks that focus on the mitigation of future natural and human-made disasters use
training and education to help communities create informed local responses that are both appropriate and impactful. This collaborative presentation will describe and demonstrate distinct training methods, community coaching techniques, and learning events which use “whole community” approaches to build mitigation and preparedness.

Arts Disaster & Crisis Preparedness Conference, University of Kentucky, September 6, 2024
NCAPER Staff and Performing Arts Readiness Director Tom Clareson present multiple sessions, including Community Recovery Through Arts and Culture, a Materials Salvage Demonstration, and Jumpstart Your Readiness Planning with ArtsReady.

Grantmakers in the Arts Conference, October 8, 2024
Mollie Quinlan-Hayes, NCAPER Fund Development and Programs Officer and Tom Clareson, Performing Arts Readiness Director, co-present Crisis Management in Real Time. It’s time to move Crisis Response from the theoretical to the actual. This tabletop-exercise workshop format will present you with actual
potential crises (not just natural disasters, but also human-caused events, accidents/intentional acts, ‘daily’ emergencies which nonetheless create significant disruption). You’ll receive a snap lesson on crisis management concepts and language, and then break into small groups. Will you be surprised by a sudden loss of a key leader? A communications crisis caused by a controversy or unexpected news? Will your constituency or service area be suddenly impacted by a disaster? You and your group colleagues
will have the chance – in a safe space – to brainstorm potential responses.

Neuroscience tells us that when we’re IN a crisis, we only operate at about 60% of our cognitive capacity. Figuring out what your best responses will be, and what you’ll need in place to respond effectively and immediately, BEFORE you need to step into action, is a best practice. Take this opportunity to begin to build your readiness muscles!

​

Creative Placemaking Summit South & Appalachia
March 5-8, 2024 - Atlanta, GA
 

NCAPER presented the session “Past, Present, and Future: Disaster Management in the Arts.” Download the presentation and resources HERE.
 

Climate-related disasters are growing in frequency and magnitude. Hurricanes, tornados, severe weather and
wildfires have widespread effects whether occurring in heavily populated areas, rural, urban or suburban: no part of the community that experiences a disaster is untouched. Readiness, Response, Relief and Recovery is a vital lifecycle for communities, yet an under-valued practice in infrastructure
and administration. This session will establish a timeline of disasters and how awareness has shifted over time, explore the evolution of disaster management in the arts and culture sector, explore meaningful and equitable practices, and provide actionable takeaways for future community-wide disaster management situations.
Register: https://whova.com/portal/registration/ncpls_202307/xuutp9h0

​

On November 5, 2023, NCAPER and CERF+ co-presented the full-day preconference Collaborative Solutions: Shaping Meaningful Disaster Response at the Grantmakers in the Arts Preconference, San Juan, PR; it was co-organized by the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness (NCAPER), and Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+). We offer two resources from that day:

Presentations – This PDF includes all presentations and images from the day’s agenda:

• Introduction: Ruby Lopez Harper and Mollie Quinlan-Hayes

• Artistic Responses to Disasters: Chemi Rosado-Seijo

• Working Within Permacrisis: Tom ClaresonLiving and

• Readiness and Mitigation: Beth Flowers and Gretchen Ruiz Ramos

• Relief and Response Systems: Jan Newcomb and Chemi Rosado-Seijo

• Structural Responses: Pamela Silva and Bao-Long Chu

• Phase I Findings of GIA/NCAPER Funders Disaster Response Survey: Mollie Quinlan-Hayes

• Reflections and Wrapup

​​

Resources – This PDF connects you to 14 readiness, response, and recovery resources through handy QR codes.

To be part of the continuing conversation, email Mollie Quinlan-Hayes [mquinlanhayes@ncaper.org]!

 

 

​