Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $32 million in arts and culture grants that had been approved by the Florida Legislature. This year, the state’s $115.5 billion budget includes $18.3 million in arts and culture grants, but only a handful of Southwest Florida arts organizations qualified for a share of that money. For the second year in a row, 14 Lee county arts organizations were denied state funding, including the Alliance for the Arts and Florida Repertory Theatre.
Each of Lee’s arts organizations is employing a medley of measures to make up for the loss of state grants.
Florida Rep has a large donor base. Producing Artistic Director Greg Longenhagen says they’ve stepped up big time to help fill the funding gap.
“Basically … we're heading into the season at least $150,000 down from what we thought we might have for our 28th season,” noted Longenhagen. “We … have a very excellent donor patron class here at Florida Rep who have come in many times. They came in last summer as well when all arts funding was done away with in the state of Florida and they know this year we're looking at some of those similar challenges.”
The Alliance, too, enters this season $150,000 down. While the Alliance also has a committed donor base, Executive Director Neil Volz says they’re aggressively pursuing other grant opportunities.
“Basically, every week we are submitting grant requests and talking to people locally and nationally who fund art organizations. And bit by bit, we're just trying to make up what was lost.”
Neither the Alliance nor the Rep has had to lay off any of their employees so far, but they’ve suspended new hiring and are not replacing employees who leave.
But there will be other changes at the Rep and other theaters throughout Southwest Florida that may not be readily apparent to theatergoing patrons.
“One of the things that we have to look at is what a lot of theaters are doing, scaling down the size of their casts or scaling back a little bit on what they spend on their scenery or what type of scenery they do,” Longenhagen said.
As a result, shows are likely to have fewer actors, single sets and contemporary settings and costumes (as period costumes entail a significant investment in costume design and materials).
However, there’s a limit to how much donors and more modest shows can offset the loss of state funding. Volz predicts that this will compel arts organizations to begin working together to glean support from nearby businesses and their state and county representatives.
“Our end goal is that we want to see a more empowered arts and culture community here in Lee County that benefits everybody,” Volz said. “Obviously funding is at the top of the list for a lot of those priorities, but it's more than that. It's also our culture.”
Volz and Longenhagen said that effort starts with educating local business owners and politicians about the economic impact arts organizations exercise on the state and local economy.
Numerically, Volz pointed out, Florida nonprofit arts organizations generated more than $5.7 billion in economic activity in 2022, a down year coming out of the pandemic and marred by Hurricane Ian. The nonprofit arts sector contributed more than $135 million to Lee County’s economy – more than Major League Baseball’s spring training.
But for those who need a comparison, Volz points to Sarasota and Miami, where a portion of the bed tax is reinvested in the arts.
“They're booming,” Volz said. “They have an amazing art and culture sector throughout their city, increases tourism, increases funding for schools and helping create the innovators of the future right there in their hometown. You got Miami, you got other areas in the state that we can see firsthand what happens when you invest in the arts and culture. So we're trying to paint a picture for our local government officials that this is money that is an engine for our economy, that it creates a better culture for everybody.”
According to Volz and Longenhagen, the restaurants, bars and retail shops that are located near theaters, art centers and museums put tens of thousands of dollars in their cash registers every week as a result of art shows, theater productions and concerts.
“From our audiences that we’ve polled, about 70 percent leave the theater or before the theater go out and have lunch or dinner, drinks etc., buy retail, and that’s really where you’re seeing the extra spending and that’s really where Florida Rep is a massive, I would say, probably the largest economic driver as far as the arts go,” Longenhagen said.
But most local businesses seem unaware of the financial benefit they derive from nearby arts organizations or the financial duress those arts organizations are currently under as a result of the denial of state-level grants for the second straight year.
Ward 4 City Council person Liston Bochette has a novel proposal for getting the business community more involved in arts funding.
“What short-term the city could do is do matching grants,” Bochette said. “That would get the commercial entities involved in the arts. So if the arts organizations are able to secure corporate sponsors and that helps get matching grants, now you're basically leveraging the amount of money that's available from any one source.”
The Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau would also welcome closer collaboration between the arts and business communities, according to VCB Product Development Manager Nancy McPhee.
“It’s not just with arts organizations and other arts organizations, but it’s with the business community, the ancillary restaurants, hotels, boutique shops like we have in a lot of our communities. They all benefit when people come to town for Art Walk, to see a show at the Rep.”
Volz and Longenhagen would love to see area businesses increase corporate sponsorships and lobby City Council and the Lee County Commission to provide supplemental organizational grant funding.
Studies show that every dollar invested in arts organizations is returned seven to 10 times in the local economy.
MORE INFORMATION:
More than 900 arts organizations around the state applied for arts and cultural grants. Of this number, only 184 received distributions.
Two arts organizations received grants in Lee County: Florida Arts, which operates the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, and Arts Bonita Center for the Arts. Each will receive a $150,000 grant. To receive a grant, an organization had to score 95 or above on a qualifying scale.
The 14 Lee County arts organizations who failed to receive grants last cycle and their scores are:
- Gulf Coast Symphony, 94.0;
- Symphonic Chorale of Southwest Florida, 93.0;
- SWFL Symphony Orchestra & Chorus Association, 93.0;
- Barrier Island Group for the Arts (BIG Arts), 92.5;
- FGCU Board of Trustees, 92.5;
- Florida Repertory Theatre, 92.5;
- Gulfshore Opera, 92.5;
- Lee County Alliance for the Arts, 92.0;
- Players Circle Theatre, 92.0;
- Ding Darling Wildlife Society, 91.0;
- Grand Piano Series, 91.0;
- Cultural Park Theatre Company, 90.0;
- Shell Museum & Educational Foundation, 87.5; and
- Royal Palm Players, 85.5.
In September, an additional $1.5 million will be divided among second tier arts organizations – those that scored between 85 and 94.99. The bad news is that while these 14 Lee County arts organizations qualify for a share of this allocation, they will only receive a fraction of what they requested and the division approved.
Guidelines have yet to be announced how the September awards will be calculated.
In addition to the $1.5 million set aside for additional grants in September, the budget also earmarks $1 million for organizations and projects focused on observing the 250th anniversary of the nation’s birth.
The $18 million allocated for arts and cultural grants represents one one-hundredth (.00015866) of a percent of the state’s total budget and is less than 10 percent of the estimated $175 million in tax revenues paid each year by Florida-based arts & culture organizations and their audiences.
These analytics strongly suggest less than robust support for the arts, a conclusion buttressed by the elimination of grant money expected by the Florida Museum of Black History in St. Augustine ($750,000), Moriami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach ($500,000) and Tampa Museum of Art ($375,000). On top of that, Gov. DeSantis vetoed $5.7 million for public radio and television, which reports on and supports the arts organizations and events that proliferate across the Florida peninsula.
Lee-based arts organizations contributed more than $135 million to the county’s economy. These entities and the audiences who attended their exhibitions, performances and other events paid nearly $4 million in state tax revenue. The $300,000 in grants being paid to Florida Arts and Arts Bonita is just 7.5 percent of the latter figure.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.