AIC's 44th Annual Meeting

Emergency managers recognize that close collaboration, good working relationships, and established networks are key to successful response and recovery efforts following a major disaster. Agencies and organizations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia have taken their cue from emergency management and developed collaborative approaches to prepare heritage organizations to prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover from disaster. This session will look at a number of different models of cultural heritage emergency networks on three continents: • The California Heritage Protection Project, a six-county pilot project that is testing a partnership model to improve emergency preparedness at cultural institutions in all 58 counties in the state • The Hawaii Emergency Network for Cultural Heritage, established in 2013 following a State Heritage Emergency Partnership forum conducted by Heritage Preservation, and the challenges of outreach and response within the island state and to US territories in the Pacific • A diverse array of networks in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including the East Midlands Museums Service Emergency Response Team, the London Heritage Salvage Network, and the Northern Ireland Coordinating Committee for Heritage Emergencies • Australian disaster networks strengthened by Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) – from Darwin, Northern Territory; to the state of Queensland; to Canberra, Australian Capital Territory; and southward to Ballarat, Victoria. Panelists will compare and contrast their network’s genesis, mission, scope, governance structure, communication (outreach and information sharing), unique challenges, and, if a network has responded to a disaster, its role and responsibilities. Particular attention will be paid to common issues and concerns that confront each network – funding, sustaining an all-volunteer effort, getting cultural heritage on the radar screen of emergency managers, and institutionalizing the concept of the protection of cultural heritage at the county or state level.