Unveiling Resiliency: Navigating FEMA’s Shifting Rules for Artists
with Ruby Lopez Harper, Jan Newcomb, and Mollie Quinlan-Hayes
Disaster readiness may not be glamorous, but its significance becomes paramount in times of crisis. Just like our ongoing efforts to foster a sustainable and resilient cultural ecosystem, it demands our attention. As stated by Ruby Lopez Harper from Craft Emergency Relief Fund, "Disaster preparedness, encompassing readiness, relief, response, and recovery, is a vital yet frequently neglected practice."
In this podcast, Ruby Lopez Harper from Craft Emergency Relief Fund and Jan Newcomb and Mollie Quinlan-Hayes from National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response (NCAPER) spoke with GIA program manager Jaime Sharp on FEMA’s changing rules for artists and creative entrepreneurs. They discuss what drove FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to make these decisions and what the transition will look like as these changes go into effect. Tune in to discover how funders who support artists directly can help them build their resiliency and work collaboratively to incorporate crisis management as part of funder and artist practice.
Recorded on May 14, 2024
To listen to the full episode, click here.
Jamie Sharp: Hello everyone, and welcome to a podcast by Grantmakers in the Arts, a National Member Association of Arts and Cultures Funders. My name is Jamie Sharp, and I'm the program manager here at GIA. I use she/they pronouns, and I'm based on the land of the Three Fire Peoples, also known as Chicago Illinois. I am a light-skinned Black femme with shoulder-length, dark, curly, natural hair. Today's episode is entitled Unveiling Resiliency, Navigating FEMA's Shifting Rules for Artists with CERF+ and NCAPER. Disaster readiness may not be glamorous, but its significance becomes paramount in times of crisis. Just like our ongoing efforts to foster a sustainable and resilient cultural ecosystem, it demands our attention. As stated by Ruby Lopez-Harper from Kraft Emergency Relief Fund, quote, "Disaster preparedness, encompassing readiness relief response and recovery is a vital yet frequently neglected practice." In this podcast, I spoke with Ruby Lopez-Harper from Kraft Emergency Relief Fund, also known as CERF+, and Jan Newcomb and Mollie Quinlan-Hayes from the National Coalition for Arts, Preparedness and Emergency Response, also known as NCAPER.
We discussed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also known as FEMA's, changing rules for artists and creative entrepreneurs. What drove them to make these decisions, and what will the changes look like as they go into effect? Tune in to discover how funders who support artists directly, can help them build their resiliency and work collaboratively to incorporate crisis management as part of funder and artist practice. I hope you enjoy.
Hi, everyone. This is Jamie, the program manager here at Grantmakers in the Arts. I'm so excited for our conversation today. I am not going to waste any time, and I will hand it off to our guests to introduce themselves. Mollie, would you like to begin?
Mollie Quinlan-Hayes: Certainly. Thank you, Jamie, thanks for having us here today. I'm Mollie Quinlan-Hayes, I'm the fund development and program officer for NCAPER, that's the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response. My pronouns are she/her. I'm a white woman, middle-aged with freckles, glasses, and dark hair. And I'm speaking to you from Atlanta. I'm a transplant to the South, so thank you for having us.
Jamie Sharp: Thank you. And Jan?
Jan Newcomb: Hi, I'm Jan Newcomb. Thanks Jamie, for having us here today. I'm executive director of the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response, which for obvious reasons, we call NCAPER. And I'm also working with the Performing Arts Readiness Project. But I come from running 10 arts organizations in my career, so let me just say my familiarity with crises and disasters was rather on-the-job training. So I'm happy to be here today to talk about the things that we can look forward to. Thanks.
Jamie Sharp: Wonderful. Thank you. And Ruby?
Ruby Lopez Harper: Hola, bienvenidos. Ruby Lopez Harper, and I am equally excited to be here to share information, but also be in community with my colleagues. I am currently the executive director of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund. I'm also an adjunct professor at George Mason University, where I teach courses in arts and community engagement, and crisis management. And then I sit on the board of the Maryland State Arts Council, and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, as well as being a longtime steering committee member of NCAPER.
And I share all of that, because I think it is important to kind of understand some of the connections that exist, but also understand the context and the background that we bring to this conversation today. I'm calling in from Silver Spring Maryland by way of Columbus, Ohio, with my starting point in Long Beach, California. And I am Mexican with roots in Michoacan, Mexico, soy mestiza. And let's see, my pronouns are she/her/ella, and I am a brown-skinned woman with outrageous glasses, a fabulous smile. My curly hair pulled in a side bun, and I'm wearing beaded earrings and a wonderful glass pendant by artist Erica Rosenfeld.
Jamie Sharp: Thank you so much. So Ruby and Jan, I would just love to take a moment, if you could give us a little bit more background on your organizations and what they do.
Jan Newcomb: Sure. I'm Jan Newcomb, I'll start with NCAPER. The National Coalition actually started in 2006, after Katrina and Rita really hit home to everyone that there were huge gaps in services after disasters for artists and arts organizations. And this went from local to national, and so it really is a coalition of national arts service organizations and funders. And we have been working since 2006, in developing resources for the arts sector. And we focus on all of the arts sector, in that individual artists of all disciplines, arts organizations, arts businesses, because many artists have their own businesses and galleries, and things like that, as well as cultural resources. So the focus has been since then, to develop resources. But in 2018, we did get a Mellon Foundation grant to really help, that's how I was hired as executive director. So since then, we've been able to have a bigger presence as far as developing a website, and things like that. And we even have written up and produce, well published a field guide that helps artists and arts organizations with finding their way through getting assistance from FEMA and other federal agencies.
Jamie Sharp: Thank you. And Ruby, please.
Ruby Lopez Harper: Thank you. So as I mentioned, I'm currently the executive director for the Craft Emergency Relief Fund. And they were established in 1985, spawning from this idea of artists helping artists. So there was a group of craft artists who were friends, and would see each other at various artist markets, festivals. Year over year, you get to know folks. And as they were experiencing different emergencies in their life, they would pass the hat, collect what they could in terms of funds, and then pass that to the artists that was affected. Over the years, that became call to service, and the group founded the Craft Emergency Relief Fund in 1985, as I mentioned. And really embracing the spirit of mutual aid, how can folks be empowered to support one another? Over the years, we're going to be celebrating our 40th anniversary next year, we became shorthanded, CERF+. And people ask, "What does the plus stand for?"
Well, the plus stands for the expansion of the work that we've done. So in the beginning, it was solely emergency relief grants. They've varied in size, they're currently $3,000 per incident. And we've added readiness grants, and this year through a wonderful infusion of contributed revenue, we were able to double the size of the readiness grants to $1,000, those happen twice a year. And we also have educational resources. So we do webinars, we do workshops, we have guides, videos, blogs, checklists. We have a wonderful area of our website called the Studio Protector, for artists to really dig into what does readiness and safeguarding their practice look like. We also have legacy planning, which I think is another important aspect of just artist readiness. And then we also do advocacy research, and we support our peers that are in the craft community as well.
Jamie Sharp: Thank you. So for those who are not familiar, what's the general cycle of how people have experienced a disaster receive assistance?
Jan Newcomb: Molly, I think you can answer that.
Mollie Quinlan-Hayes: Sure, I'd be happy to. Thanks. This is Mollie speaking. One of the kind of maxims in the emergency management sector is that all disasters a re local, meaning that really, it happens locally. And so all of the response and assistance typically comes, especially in the first hours and first days, locally. So we often see neighbors helping neighbors, community responses. We often see artists stepping up immediately, to help just as members of their community. Then there is, of course, an emergency management sector that is local, and it's a public-private partnership. It includes city and county management, eventually the state. And if it's a large-scale disaster, the federal government through FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, come in. But we, at NCAPER, work also with a really important sector, which are VOADs, are Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters, and these are the Red Crosses, the Salvation Armies, the faith-based and community-based organizations that step up with bottled water, and helping with power, and those kinds of immediate things.
Then there is a system that kicks in and allows people to begin to apply and request formal assistance from the structure. And I think one of the things that we'll talk about today, is the fact that that also is a public-private partnership. That even though today, we're going to talk about some of the incredibly great changes happening at FEMA that support artists and creatives, their role is very specific and discrete, and so there's kind of a long-term community response that often needs to happen. And that's a partnership again, of government, of private philanthropy, of community, social service organizations, so that's kind of how people get help in the first days and weeks after something significant happens.
Jan Newcomb: And this is Jan again. I'd like to say too, that there's a misconception oftentimes about what FEMA can do and cannot do by regulation. And I think that is really something that is... If you're first time in presidentially-declared disaster, you think, "Okay, FEMA's coming in and everything's going to be fine, and I'm going to go back to normal." That is not FEMA's job to do that. And I think the one part of the education and advocacy that we've been doing is, "Okay, if you're forewarned that people aren't going to be picking you up, and going, oh, here's your new kiln. Here's all this stuff." I think you react more quickly, and you can be better prepared, and therefore better to help your community. So it's really important to understand that local leadership, and I firmly believe that artists are some of the best leaders we have.
Local leadership is what leads everything to happen. And if you have a... And FEMA likes that. FEMA likes to come in and be told, "Okay, this is what we want to do," and they will do, and not do, whatever the community wants. And I think that's healthier, because if you have a say in what comes out of this, it's better. I will say one aspect of FEMA that I did not understand before working here, is that they do have people on staff, or under contract, I should say, who are philanthropic advisors, philanthropy advisors. And I think that's just a wonderful aspect, where after the incident has happened and people are responding, et cetera, they get this kind of help where they're trying to... You have another voice to help engage philanthropy within your own community, so I just wanted to say that.
Jamie Sharp: Yeah, thank you both. Oh, sorry Mollie, yes.
Mollie Quinlan-Hayes: Well, I just wanted to say, and thank you Jan, because I think that is such a common misconception. And also to understand that FEMA doesn't always come in. It has to be at a level where it's a presidentially-declared disaster to get federal assistance. And sometimes, that doesn't happen for a while. We saw the tornadoes that happened, what was it now, three weeks ago, in the mid-America, Midwest area, and there are new counties that just in the last few days, have received their presidential declaration and had resources released to them. So just be aware that often, and we often see artists affected by what I call the more mundane emergencies, the day-to-day things that only happen to them or to their co-op, or to their block, or to their studio, and aren't getting those kinds of big federal assistance. So understanding the scope, and what assistance that brings and doesn't bring to you, is important.
Jamie Sharp: Yeah, thank you both. This is Jamie. And so I think that actually transitions us very easily into our next question, so thank you Mollie and Jan. But our conversation today, really developed from a shift in how FEMA assists individual artists and creative entrepreneurs. Could you please describe what exactly is different now, how and why these changes came about, and what it will look like as these changes go into effect?
Ruby Lopez Harper: So this is Ruby. I'll jump in with some of the opening context, because I think it is a lot that's happening right now. So as many of the folks that will hopefully be listening to this podcast know, that there was executive orders that were initiated when the Biden administration started, around equitable practices. And how that looked in different federal agencies is obviously just, it's all manifesting in different ways. What's interesting is that this work that has prompted this rule change, has been going on for about 20 years. So when you think about... Some days, it's like, "Why do we even bother advocating at the federal level?" Well, because it takes this long to have a significant impact and change in the way that policy is driving.
So about 20 years ago, the Individual Assistance Program has been part of FEMA, but it isn't easy to access. There are a lot of stipulations, and it makes it very challenging for individuals in general, let alone then individuals that have a level of their artistic practice is their business. And so we saw a lot of movement during the pandemic, certainly a lot of attention being paid to creative workers, gig workers, individual artists. What does this mean? How can we better serve them? What conditions exist that prevent them from accessing and participating fully? So all of these things are not new. This has been a conversation that we've been having in the sector, in society, in policy making, that we need to do better. We need to make things easier. And easier isn't always possible, especially with a lot of the infrastructure that exists in government.
But the determination, the ongoing conversation, certainly Cornelia Carey, who is the former executive director of CERF+, and Craig Nutt, who was a long time advocate and counsel for CERF+, and the field at large, both of them were so active and dedicated in making sure that this conversation didn't get put on the shelf. And as a result of that, there was a growing understanding, and certainly working in concert with NCAPER, really Amy Schwartzman as well, who's been an incredible advocate in this work, kept the conversation going, kept comments going.
Every time there was an opportunity, there was testimony that was made in front of Congress. And over time, and certainly Mollie and Jan have additional parts of the story. But certainly, over time, people pay attention. You get congressional support, you get representatives who want to participate, who want to see this. For whatever the motivation, we're willing to leverage that. And what's been amazing too, is that in combination with the executive order, it really prompted folks to do better, and to find ways to do that. And the folks at FEMA in the individual assistance programs, have themselves said, "If not for the work that's been ongoing in this conversation, these changes wouldn't have been able to manifest the way that they have."
Jan Newcomb: This is Jan again. I'd also like to say that, and this can be found in our field guide on NCAPER.org. But for individual artists and cultural workers, there are other federal agencies that can assist as part of response to a disaster, besides FEMA. So we mentioned Small Business Association, that's where you can get property disaster loans. But there's also Department of Agriculture for food and nutrition, Department of Education, Disaster Assistance in Student Loans, Department of Health and Human Services for behavioral health resources, Department of Homeland, security for legal services, who knew that? And Housing and Urban Development, Department of Labor. We even saw in Mississippi, years ago, the State Department of Labor got unemployment insurance for artists who were out of work. And also there's HENTF, one of our partners, which is the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, and they come in and help almost immediately, with preserving things. So there is assistance out there, it's just getting that, and getting the knowledge of it, especially when you're standing in three feet of water and your mental capacity for getting this information needs to happen before.
Jamie Sharp: This is Jamie. Yeah, thank you so much. And we'll also be sure to include for our listeners, a written list of all of the resources that Jan just named, on our reader website. But I'd love to get into this idea of artist resiliency, and what you all think about that idea, about that term, and really how and why artists should incorporate crisis management into their practice.
Mollie Quinlan-Hayes: I might start, this is Mollie, by just talking a little bit about what we see at NCAPER, and kind of the genesis of the organization. Which was we saw two kind of twin challenges slash opportunities that happened after disaster, especially related to artists and creatives. One is that they are already under-resourced. So when a disaster hit, they often didn't have the capital. They didn't have an employment infrastructure. They often don't have the reserves to carry them through. But the second is that they are often the first to step up. And the arts are one of the most critical things that communities need after crisis. And I just want to say that we talk about disasters in the broadest sense, it's natural disasters. It can be human-caused events, it can be accidents, it can be intentional. So we're looking at everything from fires to chemical spills, to violence, to storms and broken water pipes that can flood your studio.
But looking at that broadly, when a community is affected, they often look to the arts and artists to help with the healing, and help them to process that experience. So with those kinds of twin things, then artists, if they don't have resilience built into their practice, and built into kind of the DNA of what they do, they're not able to fulfill their own potential, return to their own business operations and their own creative practice, and they're not able to help their community when their community may need them most. So I think we can talk about what that looks like in practice, but I just wanted to say writ large, that's kind of why we think it's so important for artists to think about resilience, and for us, as a community, to help support them and help them get there.
Jamie Sharp: Great. Thank you so much, Mollie. This is Jamie. Oh, Ruby. I'm sorry. Did you want to add too?
Ruby Lopez Harper: No, I actually... This is Ruby. Unfortunately, people can't see me, but I just gave it the big like A-OK, and lots of head nodding. So I'm going to just keep us moving because we have so much information to talk about.
Jamie Sharp: Yeah, thank you. This is Jamie. So just our last two questions here is how do your organizations interact with those who serve and fund individual artists? And then how can funders, primarily those who are listening right now, our GIA membership, help artists in building their resiliency?
Jan Newcomb: This is Jan. One of the things that NCAPER does, is very, very early on, we're certainly not first responders, but we get in there quickly when we've heard that something's happened in the region. And we try to get the state arts agency, and local arts councils, and artists too, and we host and facilitate phone calls. And that can be very fast-going. After Hurricane Harvey, we had five phone calls, and they were up and running. After Hurricane Maria, we had over a year's worth of weekly and bi-weekly phone calls with both artists and arts organizations in Puerto Rico, but also the US Virgin Islands. So it's important. What we do, is we bring not only our coalition members, but others who are our arts responders, and being trained in those ways, and as well as the people on the ground. And it's so important, some of those early phone calls are just... Your heart breaks, your heart breaks, and you just listen.
And sometimes, we'll bring in... We brought in Renee Shatalin from Baton Rouge, who had gone through a lot of... Well, everybody knows, a lot happens there. To talk with people in Maui. And it was so... They were like, "Oh, okay, you've gone through this, you've pushed through." So it's not just the funders, but it's also people who have gone through experiences. But we did find that funders were getting a lot of ideas as they listened to the conversations. And I will let others go fully, but it's like a snowball effect, our calls get people thinking and they start to act. And this oftentimes is very much the side of the philanthropy side of things, where what can I do to help? And when they realize, it's hard to sit through these calls and not have a reaction for the needs of the arts sector.
Ruby Lopez Harper: This is Ruby. One of the things that I'll call up too, Jan, is when people start thinking about we have resources, it becomes a place where we can also make sure that the resources are going where they're needed, and not just where we think they should go, or where a funder thinks should go. It really opens up such an interesting dialogue. For our part, for CERF+'s area, we're in conversation with philanthropy peers, that we are a grant maker, but we are also a service organization. And so we sit in this really interesting space to be able to be in these conversations, not just to bring our own expertise and our infrastructure, but also to push our colleagues to do better, to minimize the effect of re-traumatizing individuals that are experiencing an event, or are dealing with an effect of an event. I think it's also really important for us, and it has been really, just an incredible opportunity to participate in NCAPER for the number of years that I have, because we're able to also share practice.
We're able to support one another. We're able to lobby together, and really work as a village supporting the community, versus swooping in, superhero capes. The practice is changing around us, it really is. And I've been inspired by the way that my colleagues, both in NCAPER and around the craft community, how they have been thinking about what that looks like now. That we are less about being the only one, and more about what we all bring to the table, what we can collaborate together, how can we compile and reduce the number of places that artists and individuals have to go to find information. Who fills the gap, versus "You do that, I want to do that too," and then we're in competition. I think there's been a lot of mindset that's shifted since the pandemic, which has been really bolstering and engaging as well.
I think it's drawn people into a different conversation. And now, folks are also thinking about different ways that... The arts has always been there in the wake of a disaster. The arts have always been important and vital to communities thriving after a disaster happens. We really like talking about response and relief, but the recovery process it's not finite. It is extended, and it is unique to each location, and to each distinct event. So even places that experience hurricanes on a rolling basis, year-over-year, the result of each of those events is completely different than the one before it. And so taking that into account, and what does it mean to be in this conversation long-term? What does it mean to be in conversation with places that are experiencing climate-related events that are ongoing, that are increasing with intensity, that are increasing with frequency, and that are increasing where they're happening? It really has become more of a preemptive conversation.
The readiness and the recovery is the stuff nobody really wants to talk about, but that is some of the most important work. When you talk about how other funders can participate, figure out how to normalize and operationalize this conversation with the folks that you support. Just listing it as an example, it is a super simple way to just get the conversation started, because people don't know that readiness is a qualified capacity-building technical assistance activity. And yet we, as funders, don't list it. If we list it, it starts the conversation. It's one step forward. And I think we have to start thinking about those types of opportunities that we can take, not just to create more access to support, but also just keep the conversation going. I think it's so important right now.
Mollie Quinlan-Hayes: And this is Mollie. And I would just like to add, thank you, Ruby, that was so articulate, that this idea of just making sure this is always part of the conversation. When I first started in this work, it was when I landed in Atlanta in 2006, six months to the day after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. And our entire Gulf Coast had just been inundated and affected. And at that time, it was kind of the gathering of the willing, right? The beginning of NCAPER was a handful of people who thought this was important, and came together and said, "Yeah, there needs to be a better national safety net for the arts in this country." Well, fast forward to 2024, it's no longer whether you want to be part of this conversation, we're all in it. We all have to be in it if we're going to be responsible parts of this community.
So I think the question is how am I in it in my organization? Whether I am a small family foundation or community foundation, or large national funder, the scale of how you talk about this, and the way in which you integrate this into your work may be very different. It needs to be part related to your mission and your community and your scale. But there are ways to do that, and I think to be responsible stewards, we have to be having this conversation. So that's why really, this opportunity with you all today, is so important to learn how have these conversations in whatever setting, whatever community you're in.
Jamie Sharp: Well, thank you all so much. I just wanted to take a moment if there were any closing remarks. I think Ruby and Mollie, you left us with some great stuff to resonate on. And as we know, this is a continuing discussion, so listeners will be able to follow up on our reader website. But I think other than that-
Mollie Quinlan-Hayes: I wondered if we could close just with either Jan or Ruby, because we did talk about the FEMA revisions, but they're not done yet. And there are ways to be active right now, to make sure that they happen in a really healthy way. So I'm going to ask one of you, if you would just talk about what listeners can do right now, to be part of the help making it happen.
Ruby Lopez Harper: Mollie, you were reading my mind. That is what... I was like, "One last thing." Here we go. Jan, I'm going to kick it to you, because I think the blog that y'all have on the NCAPER site, is super helpful.
Jan Newcomb: Well, thank you. This is Jan again. We're not done. As we've said, we've gotten them, after 20 years of advocating, we have them. Okay, personal assistance, money can go more quickly to people, and artists can claim... Guess what? They can actually hope to get reimbursed for equipment, just like an individual plumber can do that.
But what happens is, even though it's declared as of March 22nd, FEMA has asked for public comments through July 22nd. And so on the NCAPER.org website, you can actually look, we have several responses. We have a regular letter, if you just want to sign your name and add to it, and send it, or you can add to it. So we have your five-minute, your 10-minute, and your 30-minute response. And I do want to say having contacts from FEMA, that they are getting more response to this and ideas. And they're actually listening and reading through, and really making some more detailed content, or context, around the whole decision to do this for artists. So it's exciting, but we all have to be part of it. It doesn't happen, just like your vote, you need to vote. So please everybody, think about it, and then do it. Ruby?
Ruby Lopez Harper: Oh, so I was just going to add and underpin, yes, that absolutely, FEMA is paying attention. And they want to know. So even if, especially right now, so since March 22nd, these rules have gone into effect. They're really extensive. It certainly isn't anything that we can go into any depth in 45 minutes. But reading the blog that NCAPER put together at the start of the process is going to be really helpful. And as Jan mentioned, there's five minutes, 10 minutes, and 30 minutes. So depending on how policy wonk and geeky you want to get, we have an action for you to take. But I was just at the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster conference in Phoenix, and attended, because I still can't navigate a lot of the detail of the changes. We know that they've increased the timeframe for individuals applying for. So you can register now, and in the event that your area gets hit by a disaster, and it becomes federally declared, you're in there, and the deadline to apply for the assistance is then related then to how the event is being administered.
But the deadline now, is really about getting registered in their system. And they also want to make sure that users are experiencing more support, that they're experiencing more consistent support. So they have kind of three areas that they're focusing on in terms of modernization, resulting from that executive order that's also kind of funneling through into this rule change. So I say all of that, because it's really exciting, and FEMA for the first time, is deeply interested in hearing now the user side. So as disasters have been declared since March 22nd, now we're going to be able to watch. We have until July to submit comment. So if you are in an area that is federally-declared, in terms of a disaster, and you have individual artists that are needing assistance, please get in touch with Jan or myself, or with Mollie, and let us know that you've got a potential community that may be moving through the system.
One, we can offer some support. We're still learning all of it ourselves. We're certainly not qualified, or trained as navigators, but we have some information and we have some connectivity, and we have resources that we can help provide, and help also get some answers if we can do that. But it's going to be important for us to know how artists are experiencing this change, because if we can get to artists who are experiencing the change before the comment period is over, we can strengthen our advocacy efforts around being able to more finely tune those comments that we're sending in.
And because the three of us are really, I think, kind of one step closer, not to overstate our relationship to FEMA, but we're in conversation with them. They want to hear. And if there's those more nuanced things, or even things after the comment period, in terms of how they're doing with administering the assistance, let us know, because we can compile that, and we can get that information to them, so that they can continue to make refinements. The rule change is one step, the actual administration is a second step. So just making sure that folks even know that we exist, to tell us that this is happening. This is an incredible opportunity, so thank you.
Jamie Sharp: This is Jamie. Thank you so much. I think that's the perfect way to close out this conversation. Thank you to Ruby, Jan, and Mollie. As we mentioned earlier in this discussion, we will have a ton of links for our listeners to follow up, to take action, to really become a part of this movement. I know I've learned so much just from our conversation today, and I look forward to our follow-up Q and A, which we'll have more information on soon. But yeah, thank you so much.
Thank you again for joining Grantmakers in the Arts, for this fruitful conversation with Ruby Lopez Harper, Mollie Quinlan-Hays, and Jan Newcomb. Be sure to check out GIA's reader site, Reader.giarts.org to check out the resources that were mentioned in our conversation. We also encourage you to stay tuned for part two of this conversation, which will feature a larger Q&A with members of GIA's support for individual artist committee. You can find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram at Grantmakers in the Arts. If you have any feedback on our podcast series, please feel free to contact me at Jamie, J-A-I-M-E, @giarts.org. We hope to get you next time.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Ruby Lopez Harper - Mexican, Mother, Wife, Dancer, Photographer, Poet and Social Justice Warrior. Ruby is the Executive Director of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+) and an Adjunct Professor for George Mason University teaching courses in Arts and Community Engagement and Crisis Management. Ruby’s work has focused on operationalizing diversity, equity, inclusion and access, disaster management and relief funding, grantmaking, supporting individual artists, community development, economic development, cultural tourism, marketing, and public art. She draws on a varied background that includes corporate affairs, community relations, volunteerism, employee engagement, marketing and communications, and business administration. She is Chair of the Robert E. Gard Foundation, serves on the 212 Creative board in Ft. Wayne, IN, the National Coalition on Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response steering committee, volunteers as a special consultant to the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums and serves on the WETA/PBS Community Advisory Council. She was appointed to the board of the Maryland State Arts Council in 2023 and serves on the board of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County as Advocacy Chair. She was a 2019 Arizona State University “Practices for Change” Fellow, a 2017 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Advocacy Leadership Institute Fellow and Class of 2017 American Express Leadership Academy Alum.
Janet Newcomb (jnewcomb@ncaper.org) is the Executive Director of NCAPER, the National Coalition for Arts’ Preparedness & Emergency Response, and the Performing Arts Coordinator for the Performing Arts Readiness (PAR) project at Lyrasis. During her career Jan has directed ten arts organizations including the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, four arts councils in NY and SC and a community arts center. She served as Director of Grants at the SC Arts Commission and taught modern dance at the University of Buffalo and the University of SC. She currently serves as Professor, Volunteer Title Series at the University of Kentucky. In 2009, Jan began consulting on leadership transition and development for arts organizations; her clients include: Long Wharf Theatre, Lexington Philharmonic, Miami Summer Music Festival, South Arts, and others. In 2015, she designed and was asked to direct the MA in Leadership in the Arts & Entertainment Industries Program at NYIT in Manhattan. In 2009, Jan received the Community Achievement Award from Mayor Joseph Riley, Charleston, SC. In 2017, she was the recipient of the Lifetime Service Award from The Arts Council of the Southern Finger Lakes in her hometown of Corning, NY. She holds a BA in Music, Hood College, MA in Dance, from The George Washington University.
Mollie Quinlan Haynes works primarily with two institutions committed to the readiness and recovery of artists and arts organizations in crisis. For NCAPER, the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response, she serves as the Fund Development and Program Officer. This arm of her work addresses both policy and practice to build resiliency in the national arts sector, and response and recovery for creatives and arts organizations in the aftermath of crises. She has developed and delivered workshops across the country and online to help arts leaders incorporate readiness planning into their organizational activities and culture, and has consulted with puppetry, choral and presenting organizations to develop organizational readiness plans. For the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), she coordinates NYFA’s Rauschenberg Emergency Grants for individual artists. She served as Deputy Director and Accessibility Coordinator of South Arts in Atlanta, GA, from 2006 through 2020, and directed the national initiative ArtsReady since its inception following the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as leading the development of the South Arts State Fellowships and Southern Prize, Jazz Road, and the Dance Touring Initiative.
