Reposted from ReadyWhen

Heat, smoke, uncertain power—and a growing network of people getting ReadyWhen.

Heat, smoke, and power stress

ReadyWhen:
From Albuquerque to Philadelphia

A national pathway, a tabletop on the move, and the people helping it grow.

Wildfire smoke is crossing state lines, while extreme heat presses electrical systems, public spaces, workers, and people whose health, mobility, or access needs make disruption more dangerous.

But there is another part of the story. Across the country, people who run cultural institutions, produce gatherings, protect facilities and collections, manage emergencies, welcome the public, and hold communities together are finding new ways to prepare—and finding one another. ReadyWhen is starting to move.

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Next up · Free IFCPP webinar

ReadyWhen the Lights Go Out:
Anchor Institutions, Anchor People, and Preparedness Under Pressure

August 26, 2026 · 11:00 AM MT / 12:00 PM CT / 1:00 PM ET · Live on Zoom

Cultural institutions can become vital anchors during disruption—but buildings do not respond on their own. Anchor buildings need anchor people. The real capacity lives in the people who understand the facilities, protect the public and collections, operate complex systems, maintain trusted relationships, and know what an institution can safely offer.

I’ll introduce ReadyWhen: The Lights Go Out, our facilitated, game-based preparedness experience, followed by a live Q&A and open forum for cultural-property protection professionals.

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A national pathway

A decade of field practice enters a national room

Majestic Collaborations was invited to help design and co-convene Americans for the Arts’ new Readiness, Response & Community Care pathway.

We brought a decade of field practice through The Art of Mass Gatherings and a simple idea: the people who already know how to manage crowds, food, facilities, communications, volunteers, accessibility, and temporary infrastructure are part of a preparedness workforce hiding in plain sight.

The pathway creates a national room for that idea to grow—connecting arts leaders, local agencies, preparedness practitioners, and cultural institutions around what our sector can safely and usefully contribute before, during, and after disruption.

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From playtest to full release

The tabletop looks great now, but Albuquerque was also a real playability test. We’re gathering what participants and facilitators taught us—what moved easily, what needed explanation, where the choices became most interesting—and using that feedback to build the full release version.

The next step is a professionally printed and boxed ReadyWhen tabletop designed to travel well, set up easily, and be used in more rooms by more facilitators. We’re also developing an online version so geography doesn’t have to determine who gets to gather around the table.

And the invitations are already arriving. We’ve heard from people interested in bringing ReadyWhen to Kerrville, Los Angeles, Denver, San Antonio, North Carolina, and other communities.

One especially exciting potential partner has also approached us about developing an element—or a version—of the game that could help build preparedness within their own sector. It is early, but it points toward something we hoped ReadyWhen could become: a strong core experience that can be adapted without losing the ideas underneath it.

How do we turn the people, places, relationships, and operational know-how we already have into greater preparedness before we need it?

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