City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Joins National ArtsReady Community
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) September 30, 2013 -- The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) is the most recent organization to become an ArtsReady partner. The municipal arts agency joins 23 other local, state, regional and national partners to bring the ArtsReady resources to local arts organizations.
ArtsReady, a national initiative of South Arts, is a web-based emergency preparedness platform designed to provide arts organizations with customized business continuity plans for post crisis sustainability. Using an all-hazards approach, the tool guides organizational leaders through development of a plan to restart their operations and continue serving the community following a crisis.
Although September is National Preparedness Month, ArtsReady works year-round to encourage arts organizations to assess their vulnerabilities and make plans for business continuity.
“Our country’s arts organizations are not only stewards of irreplaceable cultural assets, and important economic players in their local communities,” said South Arts Executive Director Suzette M. Surkamer. “These museums, performing arts companies, film houses and arts centers are often looked to as havens when communities are in crisis, and need to be able to keep their doors open.”
“DCA is thankful for the leadership being exerted by South Arts on this important but often neglected side of doing business. Though Los Angeles has frequently suffered from earthquakes, I don’t think the arts community has had the much needed resources to become better educated and prepared for such disasters,” said Olga Garay-English, DCA Executive Director. “Working with ArtsReady will ensure that our pilot group of organizations expand and enhance their emergency plans to address any type or size of crisis, whether it affects just their own operations, or hits the entire city. The ArtsReady Battle Buddy component will also formally connect these organizations so that they are prepared to give or receive aid immediately, when it is needed. As an investor of public funds in these organizations, the Department is excited to add this new tool to arts leaders’ toolboxes to make their organizations stronger and more resilient.”
The ArtsReady readiness, response and recovery tool was developed in partnership with the University of California/Berkeley and Fractured Atlas with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
About South Arts
South Arts, a nonprofit regional arts organization was founded in 1975 to build on the South’s unique heritage and enhance the public value of the arts. South Arts’ work responds to the arts environment and cultural trends with a regional perspective. South Arts offers an annual portfolio of activities designed to address the role of the arts in impacting the issues important to our region, and to link the South with the nation and the world through the arts. For more information, visit http://www.southarts.org.
Ivan Schustak, South Arts, http://www.southarts.org/, 404-874-7939, [email protected]
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