Heather Burich – Collections in Catastrophe: A Study of Disaster Preparedness in New Orleans Art Museums

Heather Burich’s project “Collections in Catastrophe: A Study of Disaster Preparedness in New Orleans Art Museums” investigates the issues and imperatives of cultural heritage protection for art museums threatened by climate change and natural catastrophes. Heather believes that United States art museums located in geographically hazardous zones should be well informed of the considerable risk posed to their collections at any given time. As the impact of climate change intensifies, public institutions need to evaluate their collection management policies in response to the growing frequency of natural disasters. 

After the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Ida over the past two decades, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana is veteran to developing and reworking protocols for emergency preparedness. Their efforts in cultural heritage protection have ensured the longevity of their art object collections for both local and tourist communities to learn from, identify with, and celebrate. Using different institutions as case studies, Heather evaluates how these organizations learned from their experiences of preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery of art objects.