For artists who’ve spent a lifetime trying to inspire and entertain Tampa Bay area residents, DeSantis’ decision to axe their state funding was a knife to the heart. Adding insult to injury, few outside our local arts community noticed or cared. But in St. Pete, a movement is gaining momentum—and next month, city council will essentially vote on giving 1% of the city’s budget to the arts.
Less than a week post-veto, Warehouse Arts District Association (WADA) Executive Director Markus Gottschlich contacted St. Pete arts organizations affected by the decision. Together, they produced a video stressing the economic impact of the arts in St. Pete.
“That was the beginning of it,” WADA Board President Mark Aeling recounts, “and then we organized.”
On July 23, WADA brought Mathis and Driscoll together with local arts administrators for a town hall-like discussion about how St. Pete can keep the arts alive without state funding.
Even before the arts veto, Aeling told those in attendance that St. Pete was “hemorrhaging artists” due to cost-of-living increases. Steven Kenny, Jennifer Kosharek, and Frank Strunk III are among those who’ve left the area. Yet St. Pete markets itself as a city of the arts.
“It’s not the county of the arts,” Aeling told those assembled, “although we appreciate the county funding very much. It’s not the state of the arts—we had that demonstrated very vividly by the veto that we experienced. We are a city of the arts, and I think it’s important that the city put its money where its mouth is in relation to the arts community.”
Luckily, the City of St. Petersburg is currently deciding its budget, and Driscoll suggests that 1% of that budget go to the arts.
While city administrators worked on St. Pete’s budget, Gottschlich gathered people to advocate for the arts at City Council’s next weekly meeting. Nine days later, on Aug. 1, so many artists and art leaders descended upon City Hall there wasn’t enough time for all of them to speak.“I have to credit Markus for rallying the troops,” Aeling told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “He got a group of folks from WADA to show up, and we went through and made sure that we all covered different topics within the subject so we weren’t just repeating the same battle cry.”
Together, they stressed the economic impact of the arts in St. Pete, the costs and benefits of providing free arts education and events to historically underserved communities, and the outsized role of the arts in St. Pete’s identity. Their statements, which continued for the allotted 30 minutes, came at just the right time. Later that afternoon, St. Petersburg City Council Members assembled in Room 100 of City Hall for a Committee of the Whole: Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Workshop. They lined one side of a long table, each with a laptop and a $900 million budget in front of them. On the other side: City Administrator Rob Gerdes and Budget Department staff.
Budget Director Liz Makofske started the meeting with a PowerPoint outlining the city’s recommended budget. Then, the discussion went round the table. On Driscoll’s turn, the arts conversation began.
She floated a spreadsheet of all the St. Pete arts organizations denied state funding—nearly two dozen in total:
- Academy of Ballet Arts
- American Stage
- Morean Arts Center
- Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts
- Creative Clay
- Florida CraftArt
- freeFall Theatre
- Great Explorations
- St. Pete Artworks
- Imagine Museum
- Jewish Federation of Pinellas & Pasco Counties
- Lao Arts and Cultural Foundation
- the Museum of Fine Arts
- the Dali Museum
- St. Petersburg Opera Company
- St. Petersburg Warehouse Arts District
- The American Dance Competition
- The Florida Orchestra
- and The Studio@620
- St. Petersburg Arts Alliance
At the bottom of the spreadsheet, Driscoll added Shine Mural Festival (stylized “SHINE”), whose request didn’t even make it past the state legislature.
“What I’m asking for today is that every single department take a look at how they can give a little towards this cause so that we can help to make the arts whole and maintain our reputation as a true city of the arts,” Driscoll said during her proposal to designate 1% of the general fund operating budget to fund the arts in St. Pete. “They’re not going to do well; they’re not going to succeed without our help, and I believe we need to start now. So I hope that I can get some support in finding a path to do something today and more tomorrow.”
Several St. Pete City Council Members expressed “conceptual” support of the arts but objected to assigning city money by percentage. Most wanted to know where this money would be coming from. At the very least, all of them were open to considering increased funding for the arts in St. Pete.
As the discussion continued, Gerdes asked for a dollar amount rather than a percentage. On Aug. 22 Committee of the Whole Meeting, Makofske presented council with a number. Funding the arts at 1% of the city’s budget would require an additional $695,000.
Council members went back and forth with city administrators over where this money should come from. The consensus: council should vote to take $695,000 left over from last year’s budget to fund the arts right now. Out of that $695,000, $25,000 would be allocated to Shine. Then Celeste Davis, St. Petersburg’s Director of Arts, Culture and Tourism, would distribute the remaining funds amongst the 17 arts organizations that applied for (and were denied) both state and city grants.
Anything not spent before October would roll into FY25. On top of this, the city brought WADA funding up to $100,000 and added another $200,000 (for a total of $250,000) for individual artist grants to the proposed FY25 budget. If the proposal passes, 1% for the arts becomes a reality in St. Pete.
Council votes on the budget this September at two public budget hearings, on Sept. 12 and Sept. 26, at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall.
As the City of St. Pete makes its final decision, arts activism efforts are ramping up at the county level. On Friday, Sept. 13, at 1 p.m., the Pinellas County Legislative Delegation meets (at St. Petersburg College Seminole Campus, University Partnership Building, Room 160) to hear from the arts community about how the state veto impacts them. In the meantime, Creative Pinellas is making advocacy toolkits and inviting everyone they know to attend the meeting and advocate for the arts in Pinellas County. Learn more and register to speak (by Sept. 6, 8 p.m.) at pinellas.gov.
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This article appears in Aug 22-28, 2024.