Since 2011, Pinellas has been the only county in the state without a cultural affairs division. County commissioners voted to omit Pinellas' robust cultural affairs department at a time when, as Commissioner Ken Welch put it, the county was cutting department funding, even the sheriff's office, by an average of 35 percent.
At the same time, they opted to fund Creative Pinellas with $300,000 in seed money. The nonprofit is run by one full-timer, Executive Director Mitzi Gordon, and one part-time staffer, with freelancers producing Web content to highlight and promote local artists and events. The Creative Pinellas model focuses largely on promotion, with a small component to fund individual artists through micro-grants.
With the recession over, property values on the rise, and the county hyping itself more and more as an arts destination, commissioners thought it was time to talk about restoring arts funding.
“The arts scene in Pinellas is just growing organically,” Welch said. “Now that we have an opportunity to reinvest in those areas, I think we should do it.”
So they asked Gordon to come up with a plan on how to use such funding if the county were to restore it. Today, Gordon presented that plan, asking that the commission fund Creative Pinellas by $300,000 annually.
“I'd like to make for you, a case for culture," Gordon said. "Time and again research finds the arts to be a sound investment.”
She talked about the nonprofit's current finance model — it's funded largely by revenue from "State of the Arts" license plates sold within the county and draws down on a small amount of the seed money the county gave it in 2011. Most of the seed money is still there, she said, and has been invested so as to stay at a level of $250,000 to $270,000, depending on the market.
The funding pays Gordon's salary, the part-timer and the freelancers. With such a small budget, Creative Pinellas can't do things like create education programs for area students or fund significant grant programs for artists who are trying to get established. She said with restored county funding, the nonprofit could expand its mission to include "marketing and brand growth, project funding and community engagement."
“The cultural arts in our county are moving in the right direction and Creative Pinellas is ready and excited to take the next step into a brighter future," she said. "There's still much work to be done and it's up to us to do it. There's an opportunity here and now to send a clear signal that Pinellas County strongly supports the arts.”
After Gordon spoke, the commissioners seemed to like the idea of funding the arts again, but had some reservations. They wanted to know why, if Creative Pinellas had $250,000 to $270,000 in reserves, it needed more money.
“We can only sustain for so long in this manner,” Gordon said. “My board has always taken the approach that they wanted to be conservative with the funding that we have and show that we could sustain for an amount of time without burning what we have and coming back and asking for more.”
Commissioner Janet Long said they were concerned about the lack of line items and deliverables in Gordon's presentation.
“I think there's an awful lot of holes in this presentation,” she said, adding that she was worried there was too much emphasis on the promotion side and not enough on things like education and grants. “I'm just not sure that you've covered all your bases to make sure we have what we really need to make a thoughtful and deliberative decision."
County Administrator Mark Woodard told the commission that the vagueness was intentional, given that the workshop was merely a "temperature check" to see if a majority of commissioners were likely to support an arts program at the level that Gordon was requesting, and “keeping it a little more conceptual would be more helpful” at this stage.
During the workshop's public comment portion, multiple people implored the commission to bring back the funding. No one spoke against it.
“Everybody supports creativity, education, economic development and tourism. And that's what the arts are all about,” said Wayne Atherholt, St. Petersburg's cultural affairs director.
John Collins, head of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, recited statistics suggesting investment in the arts paid huge dividends — a return of $5 for every dollar invested, the creation of 22 jobs for every $1 million spent.
Speakers from the county's northern half also spoke, including representatives of Ruth Eckerd Hall and the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. Even non-artists came out to show support.
“What is being asked for is a pittance compared to what it's going to bring us in our community,” said Matthew Jackson, a real estate investor and arts supporter. “We have a chance right now to do something phenomenal for this community."
In their final discussion of the proposal, the commission leaned toward funding, assuming Creative Pinellas develops a more concrete plan.
Despite her criticisms earlier in the meeting, Long supported restoring the money.
“I support the initiative to set aside dollars,” Long said. “Like everything else in our budget the devil is in the details and I would like to see them.”
Commissioner Dave Eggers said he supported restoring arts funding, but given the amount Creative Pinellas is sitting on, he would like to see less than $300,000 dedicated to it.
“I want to see a lot more detail and more vision in the plan,” said Commissioner Pat Girard.
The county will likely take up the issue again next month as part of its ongoing budget discussions.
This article appears in May 7-13, 2015.