Program Background
California faces an escalating threat from natural disasters, endangering cultural heritage collections and underserved communities. Wildfires, earthquakes, and floods not only jeopardize collections but also worsen socioeconomic disparities. Without proper equipment, funding, or partnerships, many small Californian cultural heritage collections are at risk. The urgency is compounded by climate change’s worsening natural disasters, which can strike quickly and escalate over time.
The recent California Cultural Collection Protection Survey revealed critical gaps in disaster preparedness among cultural institutions. Responses indicated a lack of disaster planning, inadequate strategies for long-term collections preservation, insufficient funding, and limited digitization efforts, heightening the vulnerability of these collections to natural disasters.
In response, the California State Library, with funding from the state of California and in partnership with the Northeast Document Conservation Center, developed a major initiative – Ready or Not –to assist cultural heritage organizations in evaluating risks to their collections and begin taking preparatory or remedial steps. In the first step of this initiative, organizations are encouraged to assess how ready their organization is in the event of a disaster. Ready or Not preservation consultants from the Northeast Document Conservation Center conduct on-site assessments across California, free of charge, to identify risk mitigation measures and preservation priorities.
Groundwork Grants, developed in partnership with Myriad Consulting & Training, builds upon this first step by allocating essential financial support to address the identified needs, prioritizing institutions that document the experiences of individuals, groups, and communities whose contributions to California’s history and culture have long been underrepresented in mainstream memory institutions.
Groundwork Grants will also ultimately produce long-term economic benefits by reducing response and recovery costs. Most importantly, this collaborative effort will help to safeguard California's cultural heritage, in its most inclusive form, for generations to come.
Meet the Team
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Joel Wurl
PROGRAM LEADER
Joel Wurl retired from the federal government in August, 2020. He was deputy director of the Division of Preservation & Access, National Endowment for the Humanities. Prior to joining NEH in October, 2006, he was part of the leadership team of the University of Minnesota's Immigration History Research Center ending there as Head of Research Collections and Associate Director.
During that tenure, Wurl was a consultant and advisor for several immigration-related projects. From 2007-13, Wurl also served as an Adjunct Instructor in the Applied History program at George Mason University. He was elected to the council and executive committee of the Society of American Archivists and named a Distinguished Fellow of SAA in 2007.
Wurl’s publications have appeared in public history and immigration/ethnic history journals, including the Alexander St. Press, for which he served as general editor.
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Frances Harrell
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MYRIAD CONSULTANTS
Frances (she/her) is the Executive Director for Myriad, and is responsible for project coordination with Myriad’s clients. She is an independent archives professional with over ten years of experience working with cultural heritage organizations. She has spent the larger part of her career helping libraries, archives, and museums achieve their preservation goals through consulting and training in paper, photograph, audiovisual, and digital collections.
She has served the preservation field in many professional leadership roles, including as Co-Chair of ALA's Preservation Outreach Committee, Co-Chair of ALA's Digital Preservation Interest Group, Chair of SAA's Preservation Section, as well as serving on the Program Committees for the PASIG conference and the New England Archivists conference.
Frances received her MLIS with a focus in Archives Management at Simmons College and her BA in English Literature from the University of Florida.
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Grace Bautista
PROGRAM OFFICER
Grace is an emerging museum and cultural heritage professional and recent graduate of the George Washington University’s museum studies program, where she concentrated in public engagement. At GW, Grace also received her BA in American studies. She completed internships at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, the National Museum of American History, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Grace enjoys working at the intersection of history, education, digital media, and advocacy. Her research interests include Asian American and Filipino American history. As an undergraduate student organizer, Grace spearheaded a successful campaign to implement an Asian American studies minor program. She is committed to transforming museums into dynamic spaces for inclusive storytelling and community engagement.