Lawmakers, cultural leaders confront legislature for arts funds

Arts advocates set their sights high at a town-hall forum Tuesday, calling on the Florida Legislature to fully fund more than $61 million in grants recommended by the state’s Division of Cultural Affairs.

At times, the call for funding was a battle cry.

“You ready to fight for arts and culture?” asked State Rep. Ana Eskamani of the roughly 300 people who filled Orlando Repertory Theatre’s largest hall. “This is the first step in a long fight.”

Eskamani organized the event with State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a fellow Democrat whose east Orange County district abuts Eskamani’s, a stretch of land from the Beachline through downtown Orlando into Winter Park.

Securing funds for Florida’s cultural organizations could very well require a battle: Last year, Florida funded only 5 percent of grants recommended by its own department of state. In terms of percapita government funding, Florida plunged to No. 48 out of the 50 states, a far cry from the 2014-15 fiscal year, when Florida ranked 10th in the nation.

“We know that is unacceptable,” Guillermo Smith said of the reduced funding. “The Legislature needs to do better.”

Emphasizing the cultural sector’s contributions to Florida’s economy could sway wary legislators, local arts leaders and elected officials said as part of a panel discussion.

“This is not the arts and cultural community asking for a handout,” said JoAnn Newman, president of Orlando Science Center. “There is a dollar-and-cents return.”

Arts leaders cited a study by the nonprofit Americans for the Arts that showed a $9 economic boost for every $1 granted by the state of Florida. Dun & Bradstreet, which tracks business data, reported in 2017 that 4,284 arts-related businesses based in Orange County alone employed 31,507 people.

Talking about employment gets lawmakers’ attention, said Geraldine Thompson, a former state senator who currently represents southwest Orange County in the House. The Republican-dominated Legislature has spent “eight years focused on jobs,” said Thompson, a Democrat, though she cautioned: “It has been a very narrow perspective on how you create jobs.”

Chris Barton, executive director of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, pointed out that “arts jobs” also include people working in human resources, customer service, building operations, accounting and other lines of nonartistic work.