|
Sign
Me Up |
| Who participates? Monthly meetings convened by the Boston Public Library's president, Bernard A. Margolis, are held in the Trustees Room at the Library. Attendees vary from meeting to meeting, but core participants in addition to Mr. Margolis include: Arthur Beale, Chair Emeritus, Conservation and Collections Management, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Michael Comeau, Assistant Archivist, Massachusetts Archives; Steve Dalton, Preservation Manager, Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Library, Boston College; Lori Foley, Director of Field Service, Northeast Document Conservation Center; Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, Preservation Specialist, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners; and Fred Vanderschmidt, Natural Hazards Program Specialist, FEMA. Other frequent participants have included: Sarah Hutt, Director, Public Art, Office of Cultural Affairs, City of Boston; Steve Morash, Former Director of the Boston Emergency Management Agency; Kelly Brilliant, Executive Director, The Fenway Alliance; and Sergeant Matthew Whalen, Boston Police Department. What are CEMT's current initiatives? The initiatives that follow are intended not only to create a model design for managing and minimizing risks to cultural resources, but also to create a well-reasoned and well-rehearsed management approach that will bring expert resources and supplies to needed disaster situations. Initiative One: The Cultural Emergency Management Team proposes the creation of a "strike team" to be called the Disaster Cultural Assistance Team (DCAT), which would be activated under the usual Incident Command System now in place in Boston and throughout the Commonwealth in response to a disaster that involved cultural assets. This specialized strike team would be recruited principally from conservators and preservation specialists located throughout the greater Boston area. Initial recruitment will seek a team of 25 individuals representing expertise in the conservation/preservation of the following cultural resources: historic buildings and gardens, libraries, archives, paintings, works of art on paper, sculpture and objects, textiles, and furniture. The team will be recruited from both the institutional/ governmental sector as well as the private sector. Participation as a Disaster Cultural Assistance Team member will be strictly voluntary contingent upon cooperation from the person's employer. The team would be on call 24/7 and would operate as a regular and usual part of the Incident Command structure. Initiative Two: An essential and ongoing part of preventing, mitigating, and managing cultural disasters is the development of both individualized and group training to address the specialized needs of cultural institutions facing disaster and emergency situations. This training would include not only the ability to participate and receive appropriate certification for participation in the Incident Command System but would also enable team participants to share unique and special expertise across a wide spectrum of cultural resources. Training would also focus on the kinds of supplies and individual "react pack" materials that would be required in various disaster situations. Initiative Three: With a strike team in place and the necessary continuing training, the challenge will be to integrate this new capacity into the usual disaster response systems. This will require an introduction of the Disaster Cultural Assistance Team to the usual first responders including fire personnel, police, emergency medical services, and others who are typically part of the Incident Command structure. Likewise these first responders will require additional training in order to understand both the language and special requirements for cultural disaster response. Initiative Four: Critical to the ongoing success of both the Cultural Emergency Management Team and the specific Disaster Cultural Assistance strike teams is the need for ongoing surveys of and site visits to cultural properties and cultural resources throughout the greater Boston area. The goal in this initiative is to have as many potential Disaster Cultural Assistance Team members do actual walkthroughs of cultural properties or facilities that house cultural property in order to recommend creation/improvement of individual disaster/ emergency plans as well as mitigation measures. One goal of this survey work is to assist in the continued improvement of existing disaster/ emergency plans and the development of initiatives to mitigate future challenges to various cultural resources. Sites and institutions requesting these surveys may be asked to bear some, if not all, of the expenses associated with the surveys and reports. An attempt will be made to assist them in securing additional funding to develop mitigation plans as well as to update existing disaster/ emergency plans. Initiative Five: Clearly one of the outcomes of extensive survey and site visits will be the identification of cultural resources that have no disaster or emergency preparedness plans. One of the underlying goals is to help organizations understand the critical importance of having in place not only disaster preparedness plans but also mitigation and recovery programs. This initiative is designed to provide encouragement and expert support, as appropriate, to cultural institutions - both large and small - to develop up-to-date plan documents and a planning discipline that makes disaster preparedness an ongoing effort. Summary The greater Boston area is a geographic locale containing an enormous variety of significant American and international cultural resources. As the birthplace of our Republic and as the locale for one of the most important aspects of our early history and discovery, Boston is home to rich collections in museums, libraries, and a vast array of other cultural resources. The Cultural Emergency Management Team members came together initially with the common goal of focusing institutional interest and resources on the significant task of developing plans to prevent, mitigate, and, if necessary, respond to cultural emergencies and disasters.
|
|