Adding $570K lifts Orange arts to 10-year high

In a year when Florida legislators gutted the state’s budget for the arts, Orange County commissioners boosted arts and cultural funding in its upcoming budget by more than $570,000 — to $1 per person from the general fund — for the first time in a decade.

The decision last week followed pleas from Central Florida arts advocates who wore dollar bills pinned to their lapels and blouses when they lobbied commissioners for the funding increase at a public meeting this month. Added to current funding of about $730,000, the allocation will equal $1 for each of the county’s 1.3 million residents.

“I’m thrilled to see the restoration of funding we lost in the downturn of the economy in 2008,” said Becky Roper, founder of the Garden Theatre in Winter

Garden and a member of the county’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Advisory Council.

The council pushed commissioners to restore the county’s general fund support of the arts to $1 per capita, a measure first cut in 2008 that fell to 57 cents per capita during the past decade because funding failed to keep pace with population growth.

The general fund, filled with property-tax revenue, is used by the county to pay for its services, programs and employees.

Commissioner Jennifer Thompson, who also sits on the arts advisory council, said the extra $572,742 could be used to beef up a “Blockbuster Fund” created in 2014 to help arts groups bring marquee exhibits and shows to local venues.

Orange County lost out on a show like that this year.

The Orlando Museum of Art was forced to cancel its booking of “Visions of the Hispanic World,” an exhibit of treasured paintings and other works by Spanish masters that included artists Francisco Goya and El Greco.

The show opened at the Prado in Madrid, where it drew 400,000 visitors including the former King of Spain Juan Carlos and his wife, Sofía, and was offered to American cities with thriving Hispanic populations, including Orlando, San Diego and Albuquerque, N.M.

“It was going to come to Orlando, our hometown, and we had to cancel the exhibition,” said Glen Gentele, museum director and CEO.

He described “Visions” as “an expensive exhibition but not super-expensive.” But the show, boasting works valued at nearly $1 billion, was beyond the financial reach of the Orlando museum and the county’s Blockbuster Fund, which has a balance of $933,000.

“Sadly, they didn’t get it, largely due to the prohibitive cost of insurance to underwrite the exhibit,” said Trudy Wild, grants and research specialist with United Arts of Central Florida, a nonprofit group that doles out public money to support the arts, sciences and history in Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.

Asked if the newly approved funding could have helped land “Visions,” Wild said, “Yes, potentially.”

The arts in Orange County benefit greatly from a small share of bed-tax revenue, money generated by a 6 percent tax added to the cost of hotel rooms and other short-term lodging.

With a record number of visitors in Orange County the past two years, the tourist-development tax, or bed tax, boosted total funding for arts and cultural affairs to more than $6 million last year; projections for this year are similar.

An estimated $3 million is set aside for cultural tourism events such as “Zora!” the annual arts and humanities festival honoring folklorist Zora Neale Hurston.

But that money comes with some strings attached.

Many small or fledgling arts groups don’t qualify for tourist-development money because their shows are not likely to lure tourists. General fund money has fewer strings.

“The unrestricted money ... would be a huge help to our small and culturally diverse organizations,” said Flora Maria Garcia, president of United Arts of Central Florida.