Vermont arts resilience network seeks formal role in emergency planning after 2023–24 floods

Amy Cunningham, deputy director of the Vermont Arts Council, told a Feb. 12 meeting that the Vermont Arts and Culture Disaster and Resilience Network has been coordinating salvage, training and recovery work for artists and cultural organizations affected by floods in 2023 and 2024.

The network, Cunningham said, deploys conservators and national heritage responders, catalogs damage, raises private funds to support treatment costs and coordinates communications among cultural organizations and state emergency managers. "We are not first responders. Let's all wait and let's have one coordinated communication," Cunningham said, explaining the network's role as a coordinated second-wave recovery resource.

Why this matters: Cunningham said the creative sector is an economic driver in Vermont and an important part of community recovery after disasters. She told the meeting that in 2022 arts and culture was a $1,100,000,000 industry in Vermont and that cultural infrastructurefrom libraries to theaterscan also serve as community assets during emergencies if they are integrated into local emergency plans.

Cunningham described the networkwhich she identified as a partnership between the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont State Archives and Records Administrationas a "network of networks" that draws on state and national partners. She named the Vermont Emergency Management, the Vermont State Historic Preservation Office, the Vermont Department of Libraries, the Vermont Humanities Council, the Vermont Historical Society, Middlebury College Libraries, the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and the School of the Arts at the University of Vermont as participants or partners. She also said the steering team includes a national heritage responder paper conservator based in Bellows Falls and that the group served as advisors to the Vermont Community Foundation on flood-related grants.

Cunningham listed recent activities: a statewide day of learning in September that drew nearly 100 participants, a culture-for-climate-action training series run with UMass Amherst Arts Extension Service, workshops with the Smithsonian about salvaging family treasures after floods, and webinars with FEMA for cultural organizations. She said the steering team activated after the historic flooding events to provide on-site salvage and stabilization and to help navigate FEMA processes for affected organizations.

Asked what the policy community could do, Cunningham urged measures that encourage Vermont Emergency Management and local emergency managers to connect with cultural assets so libraries, performance spaces and other cultural facilities can be included in local emergency planning. She said the network is focused on improving contact lists and asset mapping, offering preparedness training, and supporting creation of emergency and continuity-of-operations plans for cultural organizations.

Representative Boyden, who spoke briefly, praised the state archives and recalled a recent visit: "We took a field trip to the state archives two years ago. And that was just so impressive," he said.

Cunningham said the network plans to continue policy work and expects to engage with bills once they are introduced; meeting participants said they intend to follow up when relevant legislation appears. Cunningham also offered that Rachel Onoff and Jane Cadwalader from the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration are state experts available to advise on records management and collection salvage.

The presentation did not include formal votes or binding actions; Cunningham framed the network's role as coordination, technical assistance and fundraising to support long-term cultural recovery rather than first-response operations.