Since June 2009, the Berkeley campus has been collaborating with SouthArts, a not-for-profit regional arts agency based in Atlanta, to design a disaster-readiness tool for the arts community.
 
Prompted by its experience assisting artists and arts organizations to recover from the lasting effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, SouthArts went looking for a tool that could be used by performing companies, presenting venues, individual artists, and the allied organizations that support and service them.  The aim was to provide these groups and individuals with an easily-accessible tool that would guide them to make themselves more resilient to disaster-events.
 
Seeing the potential of a UC Ready-like tool, SouthArts formed a partnership with our Office of Continuity Planning (OCP) and Information Services and Technology (IS&T) to design an arts-oriented tool.  With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the project is nearing completion and the final design will be published in April 2010.
 
SouthArts is currently seeking funding for a follow-on project to build, launch and operate the new tool.  The tool will be named the ArtsReady tool.
 
Further information about the ArtsReady project can be found at http://www.artsready.org/