Without much fanfare, Gov. Ron DeSantis stunned members of the arts community and their supporters up and down the Sunshine State in June when he stripped all $32 million in state arts funding from the 2025 fiscal year budget.
Six months later, some of those in the arts community in Sarasota still haven’t gotten over it, and hope it never happens again.
“Last year was the first year since funding began that the arts were zeroed out. Even during the great recession and the pandemic, our state saw the value in providing support for the arts. It was good business,” said Joseph McKenna, president and CEO of the Sarasota Orchestra, speaking during a Sarasota County legislative delegation meeting on Monday.
“I’ve been an arts executive in three regions of the country over the last 30 years and this is the first time I have to stand before a body to mention that a state zero funded its arts programs,” McKenna said.
“It is important that the anomaly of zero funding will be just that, and not that of a new trend,” added Richard Russell, the Sarasota Opera’s general manager.
The budget cut represented a loss of $1.45 million that the Legislature allocated for 27 arts and cultural organizations in Sarasota County, said Brian Hersh, CEO of the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County.
“It’s a very difficult time for our arts organizations, especially for some of our mid- and smaller-size arts organizations where the margins are much more narrow,” he said. “That means they have to curtail some of their programs and their programming and have a greater gap to fill as we look forward to this year.”
Advocacy urged
Sen. Joe Gruters, who represents Sarasota County, voiced sympathy for the advocates’ complaints.
“The Sarasota County delegation has been the leader over the years in trying to push for maximum funding for it but it’s — I couldn’t believe it when I saw it on the veto list, and so I apologize on behalf of the state and I hope that we can get some return to normalcy moving forward,” Gruters said.
He advocated that board members from all of those arts and cultural organizations that didn’t receive funding from the state last year write letters to DeSantis and members of the Legislature and “go to all of our offices and go to lunch with as many members across the state and just reemphasize the importance.”
Appearing in Polk County days after his veto last summer, DeSantis said he had to cut all $32 million in arts funding requests because of a concern that a small group of fringe festivals could benefit by state funding.
“So, this is money that would go and we didn’t have control over how it was being given, so 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 and it’s like how many of you think your tax dollars should go to fund that?” DeSantis said.
“Not very many people would do that. And so, when I see money being spent that way, I have to be the one to stand up for taxpayers and say, you know what, that is an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars, and I think the Legislature needs to reevaluate how that’s being done.”
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