November 16, 2012 |
Contact: |
Heritage Preservation Awarded Grant to
Aid Hurricane Sandy Recovery
Alliance for Response New York City Will Serve as Critical Partner
Heritage Preservation has been awarded $15,000 by the New York Community Trust to assist Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts in coordination with Alliance for Response New York City (AFR NYC). Funding will aid hard-hit artists, museums, libraries, archives, and galleries by providing critical supplies to support the efforts of conservators and collections professionals deployed across the city.
Heritage Preservation and AFR NYC will work with others offering assistance to coordinate the distribution of these supplies. AFR NYC will continue to link institutions that are suffering with volunteer conservators, collections professionals, and salvage contractors. The generous funding provided by the New York Community Trust will enable both Heritage Preservation and AFR NYC to supply those professionals with the tools they need to successfully move the cultural community forward. Both organizations will also continue to assist local government in determining the impact of Hurricane Sandy on their constituents to better facilitate FEMA recovery efforts.
AFR NYC’s membership consists of over 400 representatives from cultural institutions, emergency management agencies, and the insurance and disaster recovery industries. To date, AFR NYC has played a pivotal role in response efforts both within the cultural community and in collaboration with the NYC Office of Emergency Management (NYC OEM). In anticipation of landfall, AFR NYC participated in preparatory OEM Public/Private Sector phone calls and updated its membership of over 400 professionals with notes from these meetings. Communication continued throughout the storm. Immediately following the storm, AFR NYC began contacting its members, affected institutions, and galleries to gauge the impact of the storm and determine immediate needs. Communication and collaboration will continue down the long road to recovery.
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Alliance for Response is a national program on cultural heritage and disaster management created in 2003 by Heritage Preservation. Through a series of local forums, it builds bridges between the cultural heritage and emergency response communities before disasters happen. The forums lead to new partnerships, policies, and cooperative planning efforts. Alliance for Response NYC was established following a successful forum in 2004. Its goal is to strengthen mitigation and response capabilities through training exercises, development of local planning efforts, and improved dialogue and partnerships. www.heritagepreservation.org/AfR
The Heritage Emergency National Task Force, formed in 1995, is a partnership of 42 government agencies and national service organizations. An initiative of Heritage Preservation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Task Force has helped protect cultural heritage from the damaging effects of natural disasters and other emergencies. Find valuable disaster resources at the Task Force Web site, www.heritageemergency.org
Heritage Preservation is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of the United States. By identifying risks, developing innovative programs, and providing broad public access to expert advice, Heritage Preservation assists museums, libraries, archives, historic preservation and other organizations, as well as individuals, in caring for our endangered heritage.
