SmartTranscript of House Government Operations-2025-02-12-1:00PM

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[Lucy Boyden]: Alright. [Matthew Birong]: Welcome back, everyone. February twelfth. Taking things back at one PM, Vermont Arts and culture disaster as a millions network. And so we're just hearing a little bit about what the organ hey. Go ahead. Yeah. Please join us. Hi. The show is yours. You're a one two three. Here to listen to you. [Amy Cunningham]: Hello. Thanks for your time today. My name is Amy Cunningham. I'm the deputy director of the Vermont Arts Council. And today, I'm here to share about the Vermont Arts and Culture Disaster and Resilience Network. Our acronym is BACDARN, which is a challenging acronym for a wonderful initiative. This is a partnership of the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration works to build the strength and resilience of Vermont's vital cultural sector. Through the network, artists and cultural organizations work together to share expertise and resources, mobilize response for mutual assistance during emergencies, and engage collectively with first responders and government and manage government emergency management agencies. We're here today as part of the Vermont Creative Networks Creative Sector Day. Vermont's Creative Sector, that's all the businesses, nonprofits, and individuals whose work is rooted in creativity, is a significant driver of our state's economy. In twenty twenty two, arts and culture was a one point one billion dollar industry in Vermont. The creative sector strengthens communities, brings people together, and builds our economy. Vactarn was established in two thousand nineteen. We offer training, support, and direct assistance. The steering team, includes representation from key statewide resource groups and critical expertise in specialized cultural recovery, areas. Vector and operates as a network of networks. We're leveraging existing relationships and contactless and coordinating communication efforts. We think this is a really strong example of interagency and cross sector collective effort. So our steering team is led by myself from the Vermont Arts Council and our colleagues at the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration Rachel Onop and Jane Cadwalader. We also have a state steering team representation from Vermont Emergency Management, from the Vermont State Historic Preservation Office, from the Vermont Department of Libraries, the Vermont Humanities Council, the Vermont Historical Society. We have a national heritage responder paper conservator, Carolyn Friza, who's based in Bellows Falls. We have an archivist from Middlebury College libraries. We have a representative from the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and a representative from the School of the Arts at the University of Vermont. After the historic flooding in twenty twenty three and again in twenty twenty four, the back door and steering team activated to deploy assistance to artists and to cultural organizations providing immediate expertise for conservation needs, for impacted cultural heritage materials, for helping them navigate and supporting them through the FEMA process and connecting the sector with Vermont's emergency management response. So some of our work more specifically included, activating the steering team using our collective net networks to catalog damage and needs across the state. We deployed national heritage responders and other conservators to sites with damaged collections for salvage and state stabilization work. And we raised, private funds to actually help support the treatment costs of some of those collections. We serve as the de facto historical and cultural restoration task force, which is a required committee for the state's long term recovery planning efforts. We provided outreach to flood impacted individuals and organizations in the creative sector to help them know what kind of state and federal resources were available, included, including offering a webinar for, cultural organizations with, FEMA representatives. We coordinated with the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative to offer workshops about saving family treasures after flood. And we coordinated funding needs among partners, to avoid duplication of effort. And that included, serving as advisors to the Vermont Community Foundation, for their flood grants, around funding needs within the the creative sector. Our recent work includes a statewide day of learning last September in Barrie, which provided practical tips and training, resilience and relationship building for nearly a hundred artists, cultural workers, librarians, emergency managers, and others. We have a recap of that day and recordings of all those trainings on the website. We conducted a culture for climate action series in partnership with UMass Amherst Arts Extension Service, which provided trainings on climate resilience for over twenty of Vermont's cultural organizations. Looking forward towards long term recovery efforts, our team is focused on continued support and strengthening of the network, including, improving our contact list and asset mapping, continued emphasis on preparedness, trainings, and support to create emergency plans and continuity of operations plans. We're also interested in the ways that our cultural infrastructure can be assets in preparing for future emergencies. So, for example, how could we make sure that the town library and performing arts space is connected with local emergency management planning to enable them to provide actual support? So it's not just about making sure the library's collections are preserved, but how can the library be prepared, to be a center, in the instance of the next emergency. And we're advocating, funding for arts and cultural initiatives that promote collective healing and recovery in communities around the state. Aftermaths of the floods, we were able to, work with and help fund a number of artists and cultural organizations who did have long term recovery work with with citizens in their communities. Our many cultural assets from painters and performers to theaters and historic sites are vital in making Vermont a place where people wanna visit, live, and stay. The arts also serve as a helpful tool for rebuilding community fabric and processing collective grief after traumatic events. BackDarn is committed to helping these cultural assets weather the next storm so that they can continue to serve their communities. That's what Bactorn's all about. Okay. [Matthew Birong]: So, I mean, obviously, as we all know, we've been working on policy development for a couple of years now in the aftermath of the of the floods, also, like, COVID response and getting the state more prepared for the inevitable incidents whether they be, you know, human caused or natural. So we plan on working on bills. We're still waiting for bills to come in, but we have the intent on on taking these close ups. So I guess sort of my question is, like, for your boots on the crown ground perspective, like, what can we do better as a policy development community committee to help prepare your organization? [Amy Cunningham]: That's a great question. I would say that wherever there's an opening to ensure that Vermont Emergency Management and those kind of, and the the local emergency managers, whatever that the policies are in place to encourage them to make sure that they're connected with the assets on the ground in the community. And I think, again, back to my my point around the opportunities, you know, we've got physical infrastructure. The cult the cultural sector represents, like, significant cultural infrastructure physical infrastructure in our downtowns. And, you know, we could be trained and deployed and be a part of the local emergency plans. And I and I think folks are open to that, of course. It's just a matter of kind of connecting those dots, and helping I mean, I think we're all aware we're in a really small state and sometimes it's confounding how we still have silos, you know, even in in small even in the cultural sector between the libraries and the historical folks and the arts folks, like, there's just the I mean, part of our work around the creative network is just really making sure we're all on the same page and communicating together. So I think finding those opportunities, to really connect with community organizations. And I I would say and I'm recognize I'm here with Emma from Common Good Vermont. I would say that the nonprofit sector as a whole, not just cultural organizations, but the ways that the nonprofit sector, can really be a part include us in the planning. [Matthew Birong]: No. No. No. That's perfect because it like, especially with something where you're representing folks in the arts community that are primarily centralist, the the downtown village centers, denser areas. Right? And I recall I guess I call it flood one. That here in the capital, especially there was such just the, like, you know, the providers wanting to help providers. There was such, like, an inflow of people that desire to help that there was almost a point where there were too many people trying to help and nobody knew how to, like, organize them and actually put them into a place that was impactful. And there were some instances where they were actually there there there was just, like, too many bodies trying to help with no clean guidance to what they should be doing for that moment in time. Right? [Amy Cunningham]: I think that's a crucial point. Sorry. I didn't mean [Matthew Birong]: to interrupt. I I I just try like, I'm I guess I'm making this, like, a little bit more conversational here. So that is something that's always stuck at my head where how we can get organizations, and now we're having this conversation. So is that sort of like where your head's at? [Amy Cunningham]: I think you have the yeah. [Matthew Birong]: Organize folks so they understand a role when it happens because we're not at if it happens anymore. We're at when it happens. [Amy Cunningham]: I think that is, gets exactly at the heart of why there's a factoring steering team and why we've got folks from Department of Libraries and from Historic Preservation and from the Historical Society, from the Art Arts Council. I would say a lot of what we've learned through this these series of flooding events is that the most important thing that the Bactara team can do is make sure all of our colleagues take a beat, take a breath. We are not first responders. Let's all wait, and let's have one coordinated communication. Let's not, you know, let's not send out twenty different here's how you could help emails. Let's not all do our own reach outreach to historical societies and art galleries. Let's do one effort. And that I mean, I think when I talk about it being an impactful interagency Mhmm. Initiative, that's really what it's about. It's like we're gonna work we're gonna do this together, which avoids I mean, people who've impacted in natural disasters are just overwhelmed with the amount of inform I mean, you you know this better [Matthew Birong]: than that. Kind of, like, the action to the reaction. [Amy Cunningham]: Right? Exactly. Like, we need [Matthew Birong]: to have an order [Amy Cunningham]: That's not the best thing to do. [Matthew Birong]: Action gets the way to [Lucy Boyden]: the action. [Amy Cunningham]: Right. And as important as cultural assets are [Matthew Birong]: Yeah. [Amy Cunningham]: Life is more important and we are not first respond. I mean, that's kind of the, the, the orientation to our steering team is like, we are not first responders. Let them do that work. And then we are ready for that also important second wave of recovery and salvage of buildings and cultural assets and helping artists. You know, we were able to deploy a lot of direct funding really quickly to help artists whose studios were wrecked, whose equipment was was wrecked. So that's a really important piece too. [Matthew Birong]: I know yeah. I mean, I know that there's a couple of bills that are really close to being introduced right now, so we're hoping to have some subject matter, some relevant bills, certain unique steps. So [Amy Cunningham]: Terrific. I'd be happy to come back at any time. And I'd also just, mention my my colleague, Rachel Onoff, who's the head of at at the Vermont State Archives, who's the head of the Vermont Historical Records Program, has really extensive expertise in records management and collection salvage and [Matthew Birong]: Oh, some of the basements in the municipal buildings. Like, I mean, I have a friend who works in here and what they had happened to their work. [Amy Cunningham]: She was very involved in a lot of that work around the state. So you've got you've got some great experts over there at the state archive when it comes time to, you know, start weighing in on some of those policies that impact that work. [Matthew Birong]: Understood. Representative Boitey? [Lucy Boyden]: Yeah. We took a field trip to the state archives two years ago, and that was just so impressive. The wall or the floor to ceiling walls of the just all of the boxes of records. [Matthew Birong]: It's Yeah. They they do it. Like, people people don't realize it exists. Right? Yeah. They do an amazing job, like, maintaining historic documents, but also, like, the documents of record for various purpose causes. Yeah. They do they do marvelous work in that. Yeah. We should probably do that field trip. It was It's close. It was fun. Yeah. So any other questions for our guest? Thanks [Amy Cunningham]: for having me. [Matthew Birong]: No. Wonderful. Yeah. No. I appreciate the tee up on this and, like, we have every intention of picking up some of that work once we have a relevant bill on the wall. [Amy Cunningham]: Terrific. We're gonna have a we've got a reception at three o'clock in the Cedar Creek room that includes circus artists. So Right. Wow. Yeah. Maybe we'll see you there. Thank you. Thank you. [Matthew Birong]: Alright. So everybody got one of our gaps here that we didn't fill anything into. So we are going to we're gonna be at one forty five with representative labor, and we are having some congress oh, this is where I got a little turned around yesterday. We're doing the some of the [Amy Cunningham]: veterans Mhmm. [Matthew Birong]: Relevant introductions. So that is the the bucket of billing for us later today. Let me try now for twenty five minutes. Autumn?
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