National Preparedness Month: 20 Years of Partnership and Preparedness
- 3 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 22 hours ago
National Preparedness Month: Stronger Through Partnership
Mollie Quinlan-Hayes
Executive Director, NCAPER
September is National Preparedness Month!
Being prepared means thinking about what you will do if the unexpected happens. Making decisions ahead of time lets you act more quickly, more safely and more intentionally.
Small actions can make a big difference! Here are suggestions for whether you have ten minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour.
Less than 10 minutes: Sign up for your local emergency management/police apps.
Nixle sends you local alerts from emergency services
WeatherBug provides real-time local weather information
FEMA’s Mobile App offers tips for family/household readiness, as well as alerts and news during and after disasters
30 minutes: Update your list of personal and professional emergency contacts. Keep a laminated copy in your workspace and home, and secure digital copies on your phone/device and in the cloud.
Personal: Family/friends, local emergency responders, medical/dental/mental health providers, landlord. Professional: Key staff/volunteers/board, building management, insurance company(ies), financial institution(s), agent/manager, attorney, accountant, mutual aid buddy, professional membership/service organizations.
An hour: Watch a free readiness webinar!
Risk Assessment for individual artists and organizations
National Preparedness Month is a fitting time to reflect on NCAPER’s 20 years of helping artists, cultural organizations and communities prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters.
As part of our 20th Anniversary blog series, we’re sharing two perspectives from longtime partners whose work reflects the collaboration and shared commitment that continue to strengthen resilience across the arts and culture sector.
NCAPER Marks 20 Years of Service (2006–2026)
Pam Breaux
President and Chief Executive Officer, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA)
The National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response (NCAPER) has transformed the safety net for America’s creative sector since its founding in 2006. I remember clearly its origin story as a voluntary task force in the wake of devastating Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This group of volunteers gathered to address a critical gap in our sector: the historic under preparedness and underserving of artists and arts and cultural organizations during national disasters. Far beyond Hurricane Katrina, so much has been lost by our sector because of emergencies of different kinds; it begs the question of whether the losses could have been minimized, mitigated or avoided altogether if our sector had a rigorous practice of readiness and emergency management.
Over two decades, NCAPER’s impact has evolved from reactive crisis management into a more sophisticated national infrastructure for emergency readiness, resilience and advocacy. One of NCAPER’s most significant impacts is the centralization of specialized resources that demystify very complex disaster recovery processes. Key tools developed and/or promoted by the coalition include:
NCAPER Arts Field Guide to Federal Disaster Relief: a cornerstone publication that simplifies the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Small Business Administration assistance processes specifically for creative practitioners.
Cultural Placekeeping Guide: a strategic guide to building a network for local emergency action for arts and culture that coordinates with existing disaster management systems. The guide was produced for NCAPER by CERF+ (the Craft Emergency Relief Fund) in collaboration with South Arts.
Earlier this year, the Performing Arts Readiness project officially merged with and became a flagship program of NCAPER, bringing their networks together—along with years of expertise, case studies, training data and sample emergency plans—to benefit the entire sector.
Responding When Disaster Strikes
NCAPER’s impact is most visible during active emergencies through its response facilitation calls. These calls serve as a vital link between local leaders on the ground and national subject-matter experts, helping arts leaders navigate disasters. The coalition has hosted these critical forums for months following major catastrophes, including Hurricane Harvey, the 2023 Maui wildfires and southern California’s destructive wildfires of 2025.
Beyond immediate relief, NCAPER has shifted how the broader emergency management sector perceives the arts. By collaborating with the National Endowment for the Arts and FEMA, NCAPER advocates for the arts sector to be recognized as an essential collaborator in community recovery. For example, FEMA assistance reforms championed by NCAPER and its partners resulted in expanded assistance from the federal agency to artists and other self-employed people after a disaster is officially declared.
Watch: Forging Rural Arts and Culture Disaster Resilience
NASAA 2026 Learning Series
How can state arts agencies help cultural communities prepare for and recover from disasters? This NASAA learning session features the Vermont Arts and Culture Disaster and Resilience Network (VACDaRN), a statewide partnership connecting artists, cultural organizations, archivists, emergency managers and other partners.
Presenters share lessons from Vermont’s major floods in 2023 and 2024 and explore how VACDaRN has strengthened disaster preparedness, response and recovery while building stronger connections between the cultural sector and government emergency management. The session offers ideas for adapting this collaborative model in other states and regions.
Looking Ahead
Over the course of 20 years, much has been accomplished by NCAPER, yet sector wide, too much is still being lost as disasters impact us. NCAPER launched the commemoration of its anniversary on March 12 with this blog post. It’s an opportunity to invite more folks into the conversation about what comes next. Wise words from NCAPER follow:
“Preparedness in the arts is not only about planning for emergencies. It is also about building relationships, strengthening networks of support, and creating the conditions that allow artists and cultural organizations to continue their work even in difficult moments….“The work of preparedness continues to evolve, and it grows stronger when more voices are part of it. We invite artists, organizations, funders, and partners across the field to continue building this work together.”
These words ring wise and particularly meaningful at this moment, as weather disasters feel in rapid succession. Our colleagues in Northern Mariana Islands are struggling to recover from two recent super typhoons. Recently, Hawaii was struck by Hurricane Lala; it was devastating, and recovery is underway. In addition, catastrophic flooding in the Midwest this summer will necessitate a long, multi-month recovery. Unfortunately, this list could go on, and it demonstrates the need for our sector to have focused leadership and resources for emergency preparedness, management and response. It’s just as important to have more folks from across the sector in the conversation and participating. I invite you to join the conversation, support NCAPER and be active in the arts emergency management space on behalf of the individuals and organizations you support.”
Built Through Relationships
Ruby Lopez Harper
Executive Director, Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+)
Twenty years ago, leaders from across the arts sector came together around a shared realization: when disaster struck, artists were too often left navigating recovery on their own. From those conversations, the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response (NCAPER) was born.
I wasn't part of those founding conversations. That distinction belongs to Cornelia Carey, who led the Craft Emergency Relief Fund for more than twenty-five years and worked alongside colleagues from across the field in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to establish NCAPER.
From the beginning, NCAPER recognized that effective disaster management required a holistic approach that centered artists alongside arts organizations, funders, government agencies, and community partners. That commitment created a natural place for the Craft Emergency Relief Fund to contribute our experience, resources, and perspective while also learning alongside others across the field.
Today, I have the privilege of carrying a part of that legacy forward as Executive Director of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund. Along the way, I've had the opportunity to learn from and contribute to NCAPER in different ways, as a participant, Steering Committee member, and Co-Chair. Those experiences have shown me the coalition from different perspectives, but they have all reinforced the same truth: we accomplish far more together than any one organization could alone.
As NCAPER celebrates its twentieth anniversary, I find myself reflecting less on the milestones we've reached and more on what twenty years of working alongside artists, communities, and coalition partners have taught us.
Disasters Changed. We Changed With Them.
Twenty years ago, disasters often felt like extraordinary moments that required extraordinary responses.
Today, they are part of the environment in which artists live and create.
Over the past several years, NCAPER has stood alongside arts communities affected by hurricanes, wildfires, floods, tornadoes, winter storms, typhoons, and countless personal emergencies that never became national headlines. Every disaster looks different. Every community experiences loss differently. Every recovery unfolds on its own timeline.
Following Hurricanes Helene and Milton in late 2024, community care moved from principle to practice as countless artists faced devastating losses. NCAPER convened response calls that became more than opportunities to share information. They became places where local leaders could ask questions, compare notes, identify emerging needs, and simply remind one another that no community was navigating recovery alone.
One thing I began noticing before and after these calls, and even during check-ins before a response call officially began, was how often communities would ask, “Who has dealt with this before?” NCAPER has become a place where those connections can be made. Sometimes the most valuable resource we offer is simply introducing one community to another that has already walked a similar path.
What has remained remarkably consistent across every disaster is the creativity, determination, and generosity communities bring, not only to their own recovery, but to helping other communities prepare for and recover from future disasters.
Preparedness Is an Act of Care.
Early disaster work focused on what happened after an emergency. That work remains essential.
Over time, though, our questions began to change.
How can we help artists before disaster strikes?
Preparedness isn't about expecting the worst. It's about creating options.
Sometimes preparedness looks surprisingly ordinary. It's organizing important documents, updating an inventory, reviewing insurance coverage, or simply having a conversation before it's urgently needed. Those small steps often make an enormous difference when someone's world changes overnight.
Most importantly, preparedness gives people choices at a moment when so much feels outside their control.
Sometimes, just knowing where to start, what questions to ask, or who to call can lift an enormous weight from someone experiencing disaster. We've also seen how quickly that knowledge is shared. Artists pass it to fellow artists. Communities share it with neighboring communities. In that way, preparedness becomes something we build together.
Partnership Is Our Strongest Resource.
One of the greatest gifts of NCAPER has been the reminder that disaster preparedness and response are inherently collaborative.
Over the past two decades, the coalition has brought together organizations with different expertise, different perspectives, and different relationships to the communities they serve. Together, we have shared resources, strengthened advocacy, improved communication, and expanded the collective knowledge available to the arts sector.
For CERF+, that collaboration has never been about speaking for the field. It has been about listening, sharing what we learn, and recognizing that stronger partnerships ultimately mean stronger support for artists.
One example of that collaborative spirit is NCAPER's preparedness and response guides. Designed for both independent artists and arts organizations, these resources don't prescribe a single approach. Instead, they offer practical tools that communities can adapt to their own circumstances because local knowledge has always been one of the strongest assets in disaster preparedness.
From my earliest experiences with NCAPER, I remember how generous people were with their knowledge. Questions were welcomed. Resources were shared freely. Connections were made without hesitation.
As my own experience grew, those conversations became more nuanced. We debated policy, wrestled with difficult questions, and worked to balance the needs of artists, arts organizations, and communities. Those discussions didn't always end with complete agreement, but they always strengthened the work. I believe that willingness to learn together has shaped not only the coalition itself, but disaster management across the arts sector.
Artists Lead Recovery.
This may be the lesson that has stayed with me the most.
When disaster strikes, artists are often among the first people helping their neighbors recover.
They organize donation drives. They open studios as gathering spaces. They create opportunities for communities to process grief, celebrate survival, and imagine what comes next. They preserve stories, strengthen local identity, and remind people what is worth rebuilding. We've seen it over and over again.
Too often, conversations about disaster focus only on what artists have lost. Our experience has shown us something equally important.
Artists are leaders in recovery.
While those of us in this work know this to be true, I offer one caution: let's not expect artists to be leaders simply because they are artists. They are members of the same communities that have been affected. They are experiencing the same loss, uncertainty, and grief.
Let's remember that before we ask artists to lead, we should first ask how they're doing. Leadership can come later. Compassion comes first.
And one last note.
Pay artists.
The Work Continues.
Twenty years ago, the organizations that founded NCAPER could not have predicted every challenge the arts sector would face. They could not have anticipated the increasing frequency of climate-related disasters, the complexity of recovery systems, or the ways communities would continue adapting to new realities.
What they did understand was something enduring.
Preparedness is built through relationships.
Relationships formed before disasters happen.
Strengthened during response.
Sustained throughout recovery.
If there is one thing twenty years has demonstrated, it is that relationships are not a byproduct of preparedness. Relationships are the foundation of preparedness.
That belief continues to guide our work. It reminds us that preparedness is not a destination we reach once and for all. It is an ongoing practice of learning, sharing, adapting, and caring for one another.
As we celebrate NCAPER's twentieth anniversary, I am grateful to those whose vision brought this coalition into existence and to the many partners and practitioners who have continued strengthening it over the past two decades.
The disasters we face will continue to evolve. So will the communities, partnerships, and ideas that help us meet them.
May we continue to grow, learn, and show up for one another in the decades ahead.
Readiness Reimagined: Arts Disaster & Crisis Preparedness Conference
Preparedness is evolving, and the arts have an important role to play.
On September 24–25, 2026, the University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts will host Readiness Reimagined: Arts Disaster & Crisis Preparedness, bringing together arts leaders, emergency managers, educators, cultural workers and community practitioners to explore practical ways to strengthen resilience before, during and after crisis.
Pre-conference sessions take place September 24, followed by the full conference on September 25 in Lexington, Kentucky, featuring keynotes, workshops, panels and hands-on learning.
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