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For the past several years, Beth Clark has helped at-risk kids improve their life and social skills through music as the executive director for Young Singers of the Palm Beaches.
That mission might be more difficult to accomplish this year.
The reason: The Young Singers and about 40 other cultural organizations are in danger of losing thousands in grant funding.
A $320,000 program to finance small and emerging cultural organizations has been targeted for elimination by the Palm Beach County Commission, and is not included in the budget for fiscal year 2010.
The annual grant program has been administered by the Palm Beach County Cultural Council for the past 10 years.
Last year, grants were dispersed to visual art, dance, theater and music programs, as well as multicultural programs and annual festivals varying from Lake Worth’s Street Painting Festival to Delray’s Garlic Fest.
Cultural council staffers are angry – and baffled – by the board’s decision.
“This is so perplexing to us,” said Rena Blades, the Cultural Council’s CEO. “Without this money many of these organizations may disappear and the thousands of people who are currently being served through them will no longer get served.”
The Young Singers was scheduled to receive nearly $12,000 this year. A “big chunk” of that money, Clark said, was going to be used for the organization’s scholarship program for about 50 economically disadvantaged kids.
“Boy am I going to have to scramble now,” Clark said. “I’ll have to go out and ask people for money . . . but that takes time away from other things I could be doing. But I’ll do it for the kids.”
Carlton Cartwright, CEO and founder of The Children’s Coalition in West Palm Beach, also said his 15-year-old organization will be hurt.
Cartwright’s group normally works with 500 underprivileged kids, giving them hands-on education in arts, media and technology. With less funding, that number will dwindle to about 130.
The Children’s Coalition was slated to receive $3,500.
“You’re not just depriving a child, you’re depriving a whole community,” Cartwright said.
The grant program has helped several groups grow into larger economic forces. Last year, the 44 grantees had a $2.3 million economic effect on the local economy, supported 300 jobs, had combined budgets of $19 million and served more than 378,000 people, according to the council.
The issue may be discussed when the commission holds a Sept. 8 public budget hearing.
“The commissioners have always been very supportive of funding art and culture in our community,” Blades said. “But now there seems to be this disconnect between what the commissioners have stated as a priority for many years and what our county administrator views as a priority.”
County Administrator Robert Weisman made the decision to cut the grant program, citing the slumping economy and less tax revenue generated by the county as the main reasons.
“It’s not in the budget, but the board could add it back,” Weisman said in a phone message.
The program was nearly cut last year, but saved at the 11th hour. Instead of the program being eliminated, funding was reduced from $400,000 to $320,000. The odds of another last-minute reprieve aren’t good, though.
“It’s about 1-in-3,” said County Commission Chairman Jeff Koons. “I’m an advocate for this program, and I think it’s good for Palm Beach County. Those cultural institutions are valuable for us. But we get thousands of e-mails to cut the budget and only hundreds of e-mails to support the program. It’s really tough.”
Reader survey
Cultural cuts
Do you think county should cut spending to art programs?
(Please post comments below.)
Cutting arts funding is penny smart and pound foolish! One very important thing that, in the past, has made Palm Beach County attractive to so many residents has been the wealth of arts activity in our area. This has had a direct impact on the value we residents place on living here. It seems to me that by defunding the arts, we’re pulling the rug out from under that value. Maybe it’s just me, but reducing the quality of life in our area does not strike me as a fiscally sound strategy for supporting home values and by extension, tax revenues.
I am President of the Audubon Society of the Everglades. Next year will be the 11th year we have co-sponsored the Everglades Day Festival. The grant from the Palm Beach County Cultural Council has played a major part in making this event possible. Low income and multicultural visitors make up an increasingly significant portion of the thousands of people who participate in this free educational festival. The festival’s main purpose is to bring people out to see and enjoy one of natures most important resource—the Everglades. Many of these people have never been in the Everglades and have no knowledge of what it is like. The many presentations, tours, and 30 government and non-profit agencies share their message on this day to help the public understand the importance of the Everglades. This festival not only provides enjoyment to the public, it also shows them, young and old, the need for each of us to help preserve the Everglades, undamaged and viable for future generations to enjoy. Please continue the financing for THIS VITAL GRANT PROGRAM -Small and Emerging Grant Program – Board of County Commissioners – Palm Beach Cultural Council.
For the last eleven years we have opened the ARM Loxahatchee NWR for a totally free all day event in February on a Saturday that draws 3,000 – 5,000 area residents for speakers, music and dance programs, guided canoe expeditions, and many other walks and tours of areas that are closed to the general public the rest of the year. Cultural Council funding has been crucial. What a shame it would be if we have to now cut back on our offerings to learn about the Northern Everglades just when our new interactive exhibits and film program are being installed.
Steve Horowitz President Friends of the ARM Loxahatchee NWR
I believe that these programs are serving the community in a very needed way and that they should continue to be funded. I am familiar with the Street Beat program in South Bay which is an after school program of excellence. Children are trained in the arts as well as taught to be outstanding, giving members of society. At this point over 70% of the children in Street Beat go on to college and one year it was over 90% of the children that went on to college. As you can see this is a very needed program that is good for everyone involved and should continue to be funded.
I fell that these programs should be funded for these children. What a travesty it would be to cut off these cultural programs. They get so much more than just learning a song or to draw a picture, they are getting an excellent background in art amd music.
If the programs are cut, they wouldn’t get any chance to learn about the arts. Think of what you are doing to these children, before you go ahead with your plan..
What quality will our lives have if we do not have the enriching presence of the arts in our community? The message that we send to our children and the world at large is that these cultural things are not necessary, but a luxury..what could be further from the truth? Please find a way to continue funding through the Cultural Council grant program!!!
As Coordinator for the Lake Worth Playhouse’s Community Outreach Program, I have seen the joy on children’s faces as they perform on our stage during one of our Multi-Cultural Arts Programs for the “underserved youth”. The parents and families are in tears. At the end of a show when the audience of friends and families was on its feet applauding, one young man said to me “They are here to see me. I really am somebody.” Most of the funding for our Outreach Program has been cut, but our Playhouse is trying hard to keep it going. Is the County going to let “at-risk” youths find that sense of accomplishment from selling drugs or joining gangs? Can anyone but teachers see the BIG PICTURE?
I have attended The Palm Beach Poetry Festival for the past three years. The festival is an exceptional gathering of many of the finest American poets reading their work to an enthusistic, enchanted and growing audience. Nothing says South Florida is more than sand and sun than events like these.
What a shame to think that the already underfunded cultural enrichment events in Palm Beach are now being considered for even deeper and more devastating financial cutbacks. During times of economic hardship, the arts bring people together and remind them of the core priorities: community, celebration, and hope for the future. I sincerely hope you will not feel that arts organizations are the first and easiest of targets just because their effects are and benefits are harder to see – they have more to do with spirit, and they are more long range. Now more than ever we need to nourish and cultivate arts groups. I know from experience that the Palm Beach Poetry Festival brings in people from all over the country – those people then go out enthusiastically to their own communities and say, “Look at what’s happening in Palm Beach!” Come to think of it, funding the arts is not only good for the spirit of Palm Beach, it’s good for the pocket book and good for public relations!
I moved here 5 years ago after having worked in cities rich in cultural offerings of all kinds. I was happily surprised to find that there were many private, partially government funded, organizations here that all added up to opportunities for cultural experiences, be it in art, music, writing and environmental interests that make life here very enjoyable after having lived in the global cultural ‘fast lane’. It is crucial that we keep these institutions alive and do NOT cut funding from the local government. We owe it to our children and to ourselves to stay culturally aware.
Last February I travelled all the way from Ireland to West Palm Beach for the poetry festival. Between hotel, restaurant expenses and other shopping I spent approx. $3,000 in the local economy and that does not count my tuition fees for the festival itself. There were about a hundred other participants at the festival, mostly from out of state who contributed similar amounts, many of them brought spouses and partners who compounded their spend.
I would never have heard of your part of the world if it were not for the poetry festival. From the perspective of Europe the poetry festival helps to distinguish your municipality from countless other nondescript American boroughs.
Aside from the direct economic benefit of a cultural event, there can be more subtle and far reaching material consequences.
I live in Cork a small city of one quarter of a million on the western edge of Europe. My town is twinned with Shanghai – a city of twenty million people with ten times as many skyscrapers as New York. Shanghai is the economic centre of China – the coming world economic superpower.
When my city courted Shanghai to establish the twinning relationship the strategy was three pronged: educational, business and cultural. The Chinese delegation as they departed said to us (the cultural group) that if Shanghai were to twin with Cork it would not be because of the educational or business attractions but because of the strength of our culture. The twinning relationship has subsequently led to growth and co-operation in the business and education fields, even if they were not originally winning.
Dr Maurice Lee of the University of Arkansas told me that he always advises the parents of prospective MBA students to take an English literature option on their course because while good business heads will rise quickly to middle management, all the top echelon company leaders happen to also have a broad knowledge of culture – literature, opera, dance, art.
Readers become leaders and while not too many poets become wealthy, many wealthy men appreciate poets. Perhaps one of your local schoolchildren will be shaped by encountering the poets of national and international class which attend the West Palm Beach Poetry Festival. Barack Obama wrote and published verse as a student. Readers become leaders in all areas of life, economic, business, military and cultural.
When the junior class of German officers in North Africa during World War 2 heard that the American commander General Patton read poetry they laughed. But the German commander Erwin Rommel did not, he took it as a sign that he was up against a formidable, complex thinking opponent.
Don’t listen to those who find culture risable. They are the people who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Listen to them too closely and your municipality will be eclipsed by another with a broader perspective – not just culturally but economically as well.
For four of the last five years I have visited Palm Beach County, along with nearly 100 others each January, to attend the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, the success of which is dependent in part on the crucial funds this program provides. For the duration of a week the many participants from all over the country ( I come from Massachusetts) stay in local hotels, dine in local restaurants, and shop in many of the local stores for goods and services. It seems to me that this alone would argue against a decision that might jeopardize this and similar fine programs; however, even more valuable to the county should be the way this program encourages young writers from local schools to participate in writing and reading their own work, while simultaneously exposing them to the writings, live readings, and valuable advice of the poets at the top of their field, many of them Pulitzer Prize winners, who teach at the festival. I strongly encourage the Commission to ensure the continued vitality of this and other cultural programs affected by doing its part to provide them with critical funding at levels equal-to or above those it has in the past. I urge the commissioners to add their support and that of the citizens they represent to that of the many local and national business sponsors, my own small company included, who realize the connection between support for the arts now and the richness and success of the community in the future.
I have attended the Palm Beach Poetry Festival for the past three years. I am both a poet and a publisher of the ‘Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry’. The festival is integral to the community,especially in a time of economic and political crisis.The arts are what we turn to when we need comforting and inspiration. A community without music, poetry and other forms of art is indeed without the joy that binds us despite our differences.
As a parent of a special needs child, a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters and a teaching artist with The Center for Creative Education I have seen first hand the differnce that arts make in a child and a families life. My son who is now 23 might never have learned to read if not for the arts. From taking him to the Puppetry Arts Center when he was little to enrolling him in programs at The Children’s Coaltion and to finding myself changing carrers to devote my life to helping other children find their voice and their gift through the arts I cannot imagine how we will survive as a community without the funding. Yes, we are going through tough times and we cannot let our children suffer with any more cutbacks. If we don’t put the money in the arts and guiding children to positive life enriching activites then where will we end up putting the money. I shutter at the thought.
I have visited Palm Beach five times in the last several years, and it has always been to participate in or attend an arts program of one kind or another. During my visits I often rent a car, stay in a hotel, take my breakfast, lunch or dinner at a local restaurant, shop in the local stores, and attend events where I buy books or art. Multiply this by the thousands like me who visit each year and you have a thriving economy as well as an enriched, enlivened and diverse local culture. The Palm Beach Poetry Festival is just one such arts organization that has introduced me to the beauty of Florida. These organizations are at the heart of your community. Please give them your support.
The arts are of utmost importance to expose our children and families to. If the Palm Beach County Commision did their research many “fluff funds” would be found throughout many divisions of the county. Most likely they don’t even have an exact number of shortfall and cut before they acquire all facts and numbers. CAN YOU SAY TERM LIMITS ACROSS THE BOARD.
I have participated in the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival for the past 3 years. It has been an incredible experience each and every year. As an adult it is an amazing weekend of letting my creative juices flow and doing what I love, Art. But the thing that has impressed me the most is watching what the children and young adults are doing. The talent they possess is incredible! It is a joy to watch them so hard at work, covered from head to toe in a rainbow of chalk, and beaming with pride at what they have just created! It would be a travesty to loose this, or ANY, creative outlet for our youth. It is so vitally important in their lives. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without the presence of the Arts. It helped give me a focus and keep me grounded all through school. It would be truly unfortunate to lose funding for these projects that are not only fun but definitely educational!
As the article mentions, and as several people have pointed out in their responses, the economic impact of arts funding should not be underestimated. I had never heard of Delray Beach, Florida, prior to attending the Palm Beach Poetry Festival in January 2006. Not only have I been back every year since (spending at least as much while here as the average festival-goer!), but my wife and I have returned at other times of the year for various arts and cultural events. The playhouses, Old School Square & Cultural Arts Center, the various galleries–all benefit in countless ways the community as well as visitors like us. But, of course, some things CAN be counted: Every study I know of cites a $3-$7 return for each dollar in arts funding. Why any locality would risk such economic activity is beyond me.
If you are at all concerned with crime rates escalating, how do you justify taking away cultural programs? Especially the Lake Worth Street Painting festival. As an adult taxpayer and participant in street painting, I have yet to come across a festival where participants create so much beauty for no reward other than the joy of seeing others appreciate their effort. The spirit of encouragement, cooperation and camaraderie between artist and viewer is like no other. Take away the street painting and thousands of people who are never exposed to the arts due to budget restrictions, never will be. And that would be another crime.
I am a poet and volunteeer at the Cornell Museum in Delray Beach-
The Poetry Festival and all the arts are important to Palm Beach County. They maintain the cultural aspect of South Florida. Our museums, theatres and festivals are most important to the life of the County and to Florida, and to the many tourists and residents of these locales. To be without the arts, i.e., music,
poetry, museums, would be devastating.
We vote and we support the arts.
January 2010 will be the fourth year in a row that I will attend the Palm Beach Poetry Festival. I’ve stayed locally and eaten out every year. The festival is the only thing that brings me to the area and it would be a shame for it, and other essential programs, to lose funding.
Each year, two renowned performance poets go into two local high schools and perform for them, an experience those kids would not have except for the festival’s commitment to the community.
I hope the Cultural Council will continue to be committed to Palm Beach County’s enrichment through the arts. We, as a nation, empoverish our future by underfunding creative endeavors, the primary things that humanize us.
hi i have been doing the street painting festival 8 years this is the highlight of my year since i have moved out of the area and me and my freidns still manage to travel back to lake worth to do the festival it is a real shame that the econimy is doing so bad but to cut funding to the few things that stimulate income to venders and shops of your town is foolish not only to mention the joy it brings to the artist and vistitors alike
I have been doing the street painting festival since I moved to FL in 1998.I have family and friends that travel to the area just for this event. Also many friends that don’t normally come to lake worth come just to spend days and money in this area.
It is good for the adult artists as well as the schools that participate.
I think to stop the st painting festival in lake worth would hurt the income that this even brings even just in 3 days, also new people that come there see all the clubs and stores and come back again. It would also take away from many family time spent together whether it be working on paintings, volunteering or just visiting the event. As well as the educational aspect of the st painting festivals, adults and children get to learn of all the artists new and old from new paintings to recreations. I think it would be a shame to stop this event in any way.
I have lived in Palm Beach County for over thirty years, contributing to the community as a public health nurse and private entrepreneur in education. The Palm Beach County Poetry Festival has, beyond all events, been meaningful for me. Art is our place for personal and public expression. It defines,emboldens,and vivifies our community. It brings visitors and accomplished artists to our home. How could you eliminate events that speak so well for us, and that add so much to our lives? It is the elevation of spirit that will help us get through a rough economy. Support for the arts is a necessity at this time.
My husband and I are both poets, and have participated in the The Palm Beach Poetry FestivaI in one way or another for the last 4 years. Each year we look forward to January: impatient to get some sun and mild blue skies after cold and dark months of New York City winters. During our stays in Palm Beach we stay in a hotel with many other poets and/or participants, go out to lunch and dinners, buy books, clothes, and very much enjoy going to the lectures, readings and other events at the Festival, where we also get to meet new friends from the Palm Beach community. I have recommended Festival to many of my students, and some have now become “regulars” at the Conference. All this is culturally and economically POSITIVE for the Palm Beach community and culture. This profits everyone. And I mean everyone. Please continue giving them your support.
I am an art teacher in an elementary school and for the past seven years my students have participated in the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival. It is an amazing event where children can draw on the street right along side professional artists. It costs them nothing and no judgement is made about their work. The confidence it has built in my students is priceless. I know this because every one of the returns the following year. Some as observers and others as participants. Most of them have never seen artists at work. PLEASE do not take away funding for these incredible programs!
The Palm Beach County Cultural Council has provided funds for this program on an annual basis. They have helped make it possible to bring artists in to work with the children and teens in our Domestic Violence program, giving many of them a way to reach and express their feelings and find a voice through the arts. The arts in Safety Net have been a central part of the healing process for many of our clients and a way for them to showcase their creative talents at our annual art show. I think it is shameful that the County does not acknowledge the importance of the arts in the lives of everyone in the community- especially children. Creative expression is an essential tool in child development. A life without art robs us of imagination – silencing the rhythm of life and the muting the colors of our world.
In Sunday’s paper, I was quoted as saying; “The philosophy is that we can get money elsewhere, that there are other avenues for us to take to get this money. But there isn’t.” Not exactly what I said, but to have our story brought to the general public, as well as this forum, is very much appreciated. It’s not that we don’t look for other support. It’s that Palm Beach County’s support is fundamental. We actively pursue the private sector and it is an important portion of our income for programming. However, even those with multi-year relationships are experiencing diminshing dollars or offering in-kind instead. Program support through the County sends a POSITIVE SIGNAL to the private sector that “doing business” with these organizations is viable, revitalizes communities and is economically beneficial. We are asking the Palm Beach County Commissioners to instruct administration to include C-1 arts funding in the budget and not terminate it at the grassroots level.
“It’s about 1-in-3,” said County Commission Chairman Jeff Koons. “I’m an advocate for this program, and I think it’s good for Palm Beach County. Those cultural institutions are valuable for us. But we get thousands of e-mails to cut the budget and only hundreds of e-mails to support the program. It’s really tough.”
I find this statement very hard to believe. How could there be thousands of people who want to cut funding for great outdoor gatherings like Lake Worth’s Street Painting Festival and Delray’s Garlic Fest? Thousands of people enjoy these FREE-to-the-public events. Children get to express themselves through art on the streets of Lake Worth. Vendors get to sell their wares on the streets of Delray. It seems like a win-win for the South Florida community. If these events do disappear, I’m sure the thousands who have not spoken up for these events will speak out against them being taken away. As the saying goes…you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone!
PLEASE, PLEASE,PLEASE! Don’t allow your future, our children to suffer for our economical mishaps. They desired a chance at what we had and what should be forever, the arts. Please continue to fund them our future depends on it!
I am a teacher in the Glades area. I have been bringing groups of students to participate in the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival for the last 5 years. We usually pick a piece that supports what we are learning about in my class or club. Not only do the students get to share their knowledge of poetry or Sea Turtles (two pieces we have done in the past) with passers by, but they get to create a masterpiece that they will remember forever. Please don’t take this awesome event away! Give our students a chance to express themselves through art!
My husband and I particpated for the first time at the street painting festival this past year and it was an amazing experience. We have gone in years past to walk around and see all the artist beautiful work. I understand the economic time and buget cuts but I think to take this away from the community at this time would do more harm then good. The street painting festival is a great time for artist and the community to come together and make beautiful art. Also, this brings alot of business to local vendors and restaurants. Please don’t take this away from the community!!
The arts are so much more than just fun “extra-curricular” activities for kids. Studies have shown the amazing benefits of an arts education which include keeping kids engaged in school and less likely to drop out, teaching kids to be more tolerant and open, improving the academic performance of children, developing skills such as problem solving, teamwork, effective communication, etc. Support for the arts is a necessity at this time!
The cut in funding to the arts in Palm Beach County is lamentable. The arts are priceless. In Palm Beach County arts funding reaches those who might never be served by the arts and artists. However there are tangible returns. I attended the 2009 Palm Beach Poetry Festival in Delray Beach. Like other attendees, I visited restaurants, shopped, staying in lodging and spent money on transportation. To cut money for the arts is shortsighted both the economy and to the many residents, businesses and visitors who benefit from the arts in Palm Beach County. I urge the County Commissioners to retain funding.
George Longenecker
Marshfield, VT
I am so tired of all the cuts being made this year and in past years I believe we should fight for this program and other programs not just for our community but for the children. Our kids have enough problems with bullies and self esteem that taking away from the children would once again be a much bigger problem. There are lots of families just trying to make it in this world and trying to keep a positive attitude in the homes that we need a outlet for families to go out and enjoy a few hours or days to relax and enjoy a day or weekend to see the beauty in our kids that want to be proud of themselfs and have other see what they are capable of being
When Barack Obama was inaugurated on January 20, 2009, he included the superb poet Elizabeth Alexander in his ceremony. During one of our worst economic recessions, Mr. Obama knew that millions of disheartened Americans would be uplifted by the art of poetry. On that day, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival gathered poets attending the festival (from around the USA and world) to watch the inauguration, televised within the Old School Square Cultural Arts Center. I was there. It was one of the most inspirational moments of the many conferences and workshops which I have attended.
Please don’t say “No” to the arts, or to poetry, or to your local poetry festival. Instead, say, “Yes, we can.”
(P.S. I, too, spent hundreds of dollars while at the conference — Colony hotel, meals, clothing gifts, taxi, books, groceries.)
It’s depressing hearing all the cuts going on.Why Arts should suffer? It’s for our children,our future. Please dont let them feel the pain. Let’s give them a good present for a better future.
How can I to learn more and more available and effective skills ?