Building effective emergency response for B.C.’s arts and culture communities

Our world is changing. In this time of climate change, wildfires, floods, and destructive storms are becoming common events, adding to the known risk of earthquakes in British Columbia. All of these pose a serious threat to museums, art galleries, and other cultural institutions.

The British Columbia Heritage Emergency Response Network (BC HERN) is a growing association of institutions in B.C.’s arts and culture sector, who believe that our best line of defense is emergency preparedness, salvage training, and joining forces to support each other.

What do we have in common? Our members feel morally and professionally obligated to safeguard the collections they curate and manage.

Training

Cultural communities can better respond to collections emergencies if they practice their skills and procedures through regular training. BC HERN shares knowledge and teaches the skills necessary for successful emergency response and collections salvage, through workshops and webinars.

The benefits of training are:

  1. Training prepares responders to follow set emergency protocols.
  2. Training can improve responder confidence.
  3. Training helps responders correctly use tools and resources.
  4. Training raises awareness for all involved, from volunteers to administrators, and increases organizational buy-in.

Check the upcoming training opportunities calendar, or contact us to ask about bringing a workshop to your region.

The BC HERN Webinar Series begins with an overview of the anatomy of an emergency: What is likely going to happen and how best to respond and salvage the collection? Two further webinars cover the salvage of artifact collections and art and archival collections. Click the link to view the webinars when you are ready.

Resources

BC HERN makes resources and supplies for collection salvage available to the British Columbia art and culture community, to make collections salvage more efficient and effective. There are currently 4 provincial BC HERN Emergency Kits deployed throughout B.C. These kits are meant to augment the salvage supplies that an institution already has on-site as part of their emergency planning.

Networking

BC HERN develops strong and ongoing networks to facilitate an effective local response. Membership in the BC HERN is intended to create networks of cultural workers who will come to each other’s aid. By helping each other during a collections emergency, art and cultural caregivers will improve outcomes in their region. By improving their salvage training and commitment to emergency preparation, members of the BC HERN support effective local emergency response for cultural centers.

A network based on relationships and community building