Atlanta, GA - April 11, 2023 - Lyrasis, a mission-driven, community-led nonprofit serving libraries, museums and cultural heritage organizations, is pleased to announce that they have been awarded a $1.5M grant from the Mellon Foundation to continue and expand the Performing Arts Readiness (PAR) project. PAR, initially funded in 2017 through a $2.5 million grant from Mellon, was created to strengthen emergency preparedness within performing arts organizations across the United States.
PAR, now in its seventh year, is a community initiative from Lyrasis that brings together leading arts and culture organizations to develop and implement creative programs to increase knowledge, ability, and capacity around emergency preparedness and response. Through its work with BIPOC-led and rural organizations via networking and disaster planning grants, and publication of case studies, PAR centers its efforts on helping to creatively respond to the effects of the pandemic, racial and economic inequality, climate change concerns and other causes of crises and disasters. Key partners on the PAR Steering Committee include the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response (NCAPER), the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA), Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA), The International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD), Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC), National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network (NPN/VAN), New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC), South Arts, and Western Art Alliance (WAA).
This new round of funding allows PAR to continue its important partnerships as well as allow for the development of two new programs: Archiving Site Visits and Event/Festival Safety Audits. These new programs grew from the evolving needs of performing arts organizations, especially as they continue to adapt to new community needs in light of the global pandemic. Archiving site visits from PAR will send archives specialists directly to arts organizations to recommend and help deploy safety and preservation improvements for their business and programmatic archives. The new Event and Festival Safety Audits are an extension of The Art of Mass Gatherings (AOMG), which was piloted in phase 2 of the PAR project, but now has a new level of urgency given a collective return to public, in-person events. These new audits will send emergency management professionals to meet with event producers, tour the festival grounds, and point out areas for improvement in safety, sustainability, accessibility, and community engagement.
“Thanks to the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, PAR has been able to support performing arts organizations across the nation for seven years. By offering disaster preparedness information, and sustainability tools and training, we are proud to contribute to the health and long-term success of these vital and vibrant organizations. Even in times of disaster, the show must go on. PAR helps ensure that is possible,” said Tom Clareson, Project Director of Performing Arts Readiness.
Along with these new service offerings, PAR will continue to offer its existing programming, including the Circuit Rider Program, AOMG, free educational webinars, disaster planning grants, network grants and lectures to arts administration programs to connect with students. This extension of PAR programs will run for three years, beginning January 1, 2023 and is expected to conclude December 31, 2025.
