When Orange County commissioners approved $5.16 million in cultural-tourism grants at the end of October, it was a rare bright spot in an autumn of uncertainty for Central Florida’s arts organizations.

Local cultural leaders have cast a wary eye on Tallahassee, where the state’s support of arts and culture — for years an established process with rigorous vetting that ran like clockwork — now generates more questions than revenue.

To wit, it’s unclear how 24 cultural groups were chosen to receive $1.5 million that the legislator who pushed the funding intended for a much larger pool of organizations. The process for awarding $1 million in the state’s America 250 grants to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial — grants that ended up mostly bypassing arts organizations — is equally obscure.

And now the funding process for the next legislative session, which begins in January, has been halted while Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Department of State tries to rewrite the rules to favor artistic expression that aligns with the Republican-led government’s values  — even though similar revisions were previously rejected by legislators.

Arts funding is a tiny piece — less than 1% — of Florida’s $117.4 billion budget. State arts spending has varied wildly for years; in 2024, DeSantis vetoed $32 million in arts grants because he considered Fringe theater festivals like Orlando’s to be too sexual in nature.

But the procedure for receiving state money has been constant, with reviews of applications by panels of experts who then scored applicants on artistic merit, fiscal responsibility and other pertinent factors. In the past, any group that scored 85 or above received funding. That was upended this year, though, when only groups scoring 95 or above split the $21.5 million allocated for arts grants.

Disheartening news

Closer to home, news from nearby counties has been disheartening for arts leaders as well.

Last month, Volusia County commissioners cut the entire Community Cultural Grant Program — which would have distributed more than $611,000 — after a commissioner objected to the Athens Theatre in DeLand renting its venue to an outside organization for a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” event that included performers in drag.

In Pinellas County, commissioners eliminated a $1 million allocation to arts agency Creative Pinellas. About $500,000 was reallocated toward a new arts-tourism grant program, which will be overseen by Visit St. Pete Clearwater — a move that gives county officials more direct control over what gets funded.

That seems to align with actions taken at the state level.

State Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando)Smith intended the $1.5 million he spearheaded for arts funding to be distributed among groups expecting state money as usual because they scored between 85 and 94.9  Instead, just 24 organizations “cherry-picked” by the DeSantis administration split that $1.5 million, leaving Smith frustrated.

“I’ve tried to find out how the list of grantees was determined and not gotten any answers,” he said. “I suspect politics were in play. That’s not how we intended those funds to be used.”

The only Orange County organization to receive part of that funding was the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, which was awarded $37,096. Leaders of that organization did not respond to multiple Sentinel inquiries about how they would use the money.

Likewise, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of State, which oversees arts and cultural affairs and announces who receives funds, did not provide any answers.

America 250 skips arts

The America 250 program, funded by the state, was originally described as supporting educational materials, lectures, exhibits, student performances, public art, concerts, plays and dance productions celebrating the nation’s anniversary. The final awards, however, all but ignored arts groups in favor of history and educational organizations.

The only Central Florida grant was $10,000 for the Winter Park chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a nonprofit service organization promoting historic preservation and patriotism with membership based on lineage dating to the War of Independence.

William P. Duval Chapter Regent April Douglas said the funding would support a variety of projects, including distribution of American flags, placing wreaths on veterans’ graves, hosting a tea party for veterans, establishing a “liberty tree” and veterans’ plaque in Central Park, teaching free genealogy classes, erecting library exhibits and donating a new American flag to the city of Winter Park.

“Our DAR chapter is honored to be working in collaboration with the City of Winter Park,” Davis said, “and we are committed to being good stewards of this wonderful opportunity through the State of Florida’s Division of Arts and Culture sponsorship with this grant.”

The Duval chapter is one of multiple Daughters of the American Revolution chapters to receive funding through the program. Other awards went to history museums, libraries, the state university system and state parks.

Lack of transparency

While arts leaders don’t object to how those particular grants were disbursed, they question why the state’s process for determining all its cultural grants — a process that once was easy to publicly follow — is now taking place behind closed doors.

“There’s not been any transparency,” said Jennifer Evins, president and CEO of United Arts of Central Florida, the arts agency for Orange, Lake, Seminole and Osceola counties. And as for next year’s grants: “We still don’t know what’s happening.”

In September, after arts organizations had already filed their grant applications, they received an email from the state saying the program was being paused to make it “better align with our mission and objectives,” though those objectives were not spelled out.

“Beginning immediately, the Division [of Arts & Culture] will revise the guidelines, application and scoring rubric,” the letter continued, stating the process should be finalized by January.

Among the suggested revisions: Giving more weight to artistic programming that considers “heritage and history” and barring groups from funding for events that aren’t suitable for all ages — an idea previously floated in a legislative committee that failed to gain traction.

DeSantis first brought up changing the funding requirements last spring when he recommended restoring arts grants to the budget — but with strings attached, such as reducing the influence of experts in different arts genres and placing more power over who gets funded in the hands of the Secretary of State, a political appointee.

An overstep?

Smith said trying to force through changes without legislators would be an overstep by the Department of State.

“DOS is trying to create new laws and policies without the consent of the Legislature,” he said. “They are trying to do it through rule-making. That’s not OK. They don’t create laws: That’s not their job, that’s our job.”

But equally disturbing, he said, was the idea that government agencies were attempting to determine what types of art are more valuable than others.

“That’s really problematic, that’s censorship,” Smith said. “It’s the government determining what is appropriate in the arts community. The government should not prescreen content.”

Evins sees it that way, as well.

“They are censoring art through their funding,” she said. “It’s becoming a more political than equitable distribution.”

In 2024, DeSantis said he was standing up for taxpayers when he vetoed arts funding, but also indicated artistic taste was part of his rationale.

“You have your tax dollars being given in grants to things like the Fringe Festival, which is like a sexual festival where they’re doing all this stuff,” he said at the time, “and it’s like, how many of you think your tax dollars should go to fund that? Not many people would do that.”

Although the Fringe Festival does feature adult-only shows, the bulk of the festival’s offerings are suitable for a wider age range. The festival features free children’s programming every year, as well.

At a 2024 press conference, the governor elaborated on his philosophy on arts funding and why he vetoed it, pointing to unspecified “woke” programming.

“What really harmed some of the cultural stuff was the amount of wokeness that had been underwritten,” he said. “The way I view it is if I’m walking down the street and a police officer comes up to me or a small business owner, somebody. and says, ‘Governor, why are we spending money on X?’ I’ve got to be able to say and give them an explanation. If you say, ‘Why are we spending money on gender theory ideology?’ I can’t give an answer to that.”

Substantial loss

Evins said about $7 million of the $85 million it takes each year to keep Central Florida’s many arts groups running usually comes from the state.

“It’s substantial,” she said, adding that the primary way to make up for the loss of that funding is by increasing private philanthropy — something that might be difficult as the Central Florida private sector already contributes more than $30 million annually toward arts and culture.

In Orange County, cultural organizations have an added layer of security in that a small percentage of the Tourist Development Tax — a levy on hotel and other short-term stays — is earmarked for them.

“We are lucky we are where we are,” said Elyse Jardine, senior director of community outreach for United Arts. “The funding landscape is different in Lake, Osceola and Seminole. They are maybe not as fortunate to have the tax revenue coming in to support the arts in the same way.”

Orange County leaders have a history of being personally enthusiastic about local cultural offerings.

“All I see and hear is unwavering support for arts and culture,” said Vicki Landon, administrator for the county’s Arts & Cultural Affairs office. “I think our leadership understands the positive economic impact and benefits to our quality of life.”

In last month’s cultural-tourism grants, 39 organizations that demonstrated their programming draws visitors — who spend money locally — were awarded funds. Among them were two new organizations: New Generation Theatrical, which stages plays and other theatrical events, and the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestras, an extensive music-education program.

The county also gives regular cultural-facility grants to maintain and improve venues.

But even Orange County isn’t immune to the political winds of the state and nation. This year, it chose to end grant programs related to diversity and sustainability in the arts for fear of jeopardizing other state and federal funding.

United Arts is also affected by funding cuts at state and national levels, though it has continued grant programs such as its Individual Artist Awards — supported by Duke Energy and an Athletes for Artists golf-tournament fundraiser. Twenty artists and artistic entrepreneurs will each receive $5,000 for community-focused work.

Foundations and nonprofits also continue to contribute, with Descolonizarte Teatro, an Orlando-based Spanish-language artistic producer, receiving a grant from South Arts — a regional arts nonprofit based in Atlanta — this fall for the first time.

Fighting uncertainty

And to help combat the uncertainty surrounding state funding, United Arts already told the Central Florida organizations to which they annually award operational-support money that they can expect the same amount this year as they received in 2024.

United Arts reaches more organizations with $2.4 million in grants

“We wanted our partner grantees to know they could count on that money,” Evins said. That funding, about $2.4 million that goes to more than 60 organizations across the region, starts being distributed in January.

She said a survey distributed as part of the county’s long-term cultural planning showed broad public support for arts funding.

“We hope our elected officials will hear the voice of their constituents,” Evins said.

Jardine added that the work of promoting the benefits of arts funding to elected officials has to continue.

“We have to bust that myth that the arts are ‘just entertainment’ or a luxury,” she said. “Arts mean business, they mean jobs, they mean better education and health, and better civic engagement. The arts are a cornerstone of thriving and prosperous communities.”

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