Facebook
Twitter
RSS
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.)
To watch a childs eyes light up when they first tap into the magic of their creativity is priceless. This beautiful community we live in is not just made up of palm trees, blue skies and gentle waves, but by it’s inhabitants (and not just the ones that come around seasonaly). What do you tell the heart of a community when you chip away at it’s sense of worth?
Children are our future and should not be the object of budget cuts. The art programs in our community benifit our children through learning experiences on their terms and should not be jeopardized. Budgeting is a difficult process however priority needs to be given to our most important resource.
The County Administration/Commissioners are sending a very poor message to residents, visitors and business leaders by severing funds to this cultural grant program. Do they want Palm Beach County to return to the dark days of being a cultural void? A vote of no confidence in this fund paves the way for it. This fund is a tiny part of a very large budget, and to eliminate it, rather than trim it, is extremely shortsighted. A county government that does not support art and culture is a black eye to those trying to attract new businesses and maintain the quality of life for its residents.
Not to mention, the fund helps fuel the creative industry, which returns the county investment numerous times over.
Without the arts (Performance / visual) many of the children served will not have the motivation to strive to be their best. The chance to create, learn and then perform, teaches young people the kind of processes that are necessary to become successful in life. This kind of learning /cultural process is necessary for children from any neigborhood but it is absolutely essential to children living in neighborhoods where the positive stimuli is virtually non-existant. The arts and arts programs make it possible for some children to have experiences outside of what they live in every day of their lives.
While nothing is wrong with taking care of our animals, you would never consider cutting services to animal control in this county, but it is seems so easy for you to annually attempt to minimize or eliminate necessary services from our children.
Please reconsider before cutting the arts programs.
Ken Jackson
I supervise The Safety Net Program at Home Safe. For three years this grant has allowed our domestic violence program to bring in trained artists to work with our kids age 6-17 years old.
By encouraging the youth to express themselves therapeutically through the arts, we have been able to “reach” many children whom we otherwise may have not. Children are able to express feelings through different media, whether it be painting, collages, or music.
The artwork is not only therapeutic but very powerful, and is showcased every year during Domestic Violence Awareness month to bring to light the impact of family violence in our community. Our teens are currently making a short film about surviving domestic violence and avoiding the lure of the streets and gang life.
The Cultural Council grants make a very real impact to Palm Beach County’s families. Please do not cut out these essential grants.
We are working with children who have been abused or have witnessed abuse in the form of Domestic violence
The Safety net program is involved in breaking the generational cycle of abuse. Evidenced based treatment include arts to help in the healing process. Children experience trauma in their whole sensory system. Arts helps to heal this trauma. I hope you will reconsider cutting the arts funding.
Gerda Muyen,MSW, LCSW
The Children’s Place at Home Safe needs you to help save our Safety Net “Arts Away” program!
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 Safety Net Domestic Violence Prevention & Intervention 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.
Victoria Giller
The youth and families that we serve live in poverty-stricken, at-risk rural communities. Most of the children have no opportunities to learn and grow beyond their small, stagnant world.
Our Hope for Youth Program offers additional educational assistance, literacy classes, physical activities, and nutritious food to these underserved communities. The youth and their families are a large part of choosing the activities we offer, thus whenever possible, we respond by offering simple cultural and artistic projects. It is these “hands-on” projects that open young minds and invite families to partake in learning and growing thereby cultivating healthy, positive choices and strong communities.
How can so much be dismissed? For $3,000 from the Cultural Council, we hope to begin a Cultural Arts Program for the benefit of the many communities that we serve. The results will be priceless…
You have much responsibility in deciding the future for so many. Please…reconsider cutting the arts funding for Palm Beach County.
The role of the arts in our lives enables us to see the world and the human condition in different ways, and to see and understand what we might not have seen or understood before. The arts are essential to the progress of every community.
The Cultural Council has made a significant impact. I can speak from my own experience as chairman and a founder of the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival as well as a business owner whose business is the visual arts.
With out the funding from the Cultural Council the Street Painting Festival might never have happened.
Since its inception the Council has funded the Street Painting Festival,initially with its Neighborhood in Arts Residency Program and now through its Cat C-1 Grant.
Those annual grants have amounted to over $100,000 over the past 15 years and have been vital to the perpetuation of the Festival.
That is just a very small fraction of what the Council does.
The Street Painting Festival has an annual attendance of over 100,000 visitors and residents.
Center for Creative Education has been serving the children of Palm Beach County for over 10 years.In this day and age where so many of our children are ask risk on so many levels, the use of their imaginations is absolutely essential as part of their process of growing into happy, productive citizens. CCE has provided arts and arts-integrated educational programming to over 8,000 children this year alone.
Funding for cultural programming and for institutions must remain a priority for the future of Palm Beach County. National studies prove the economic rewards that come from cultural funding and the effects of the arts on sustaining and rebuilding communities has been documented countless times.
Our community cannot afford to lose any funding for our cultural programming. I strongly encourage that no cuts be made in arts funding.
I have read Kevin D. Thompson’s 8/31/09 article indicating the Palm Beach County Commission is considering further cutting or elimination of the funding of Cultural Groups through the Palm Beach Cultural Council. This is short sighted and contrary to the goals of making Palm Beach County the premier county it should be. As of 2007 Palm Beach County had a population of 1,351,236. At the former funding level of $400,000 that comes to under 30 cents per person. I am sure that most of the population has enjoyed and benefited from the various groups or even street fairs featuring our artists. On a more basic level, Home Safes “Arts Away” program, unites children and teens in domestic violence programs with the world of the arts. Replacing violence with beauty is a goal in itself. Let us keep culture in our lives. The arts should be funded because they represent our humanity and incidentally bring jobs and tourists to our county which in dollars far exceeds the funding requested of the Palm Beach County Commissioners.
I am a volunteer for the Safety Net Program which helps kids overcome domestic violence, and personally have seen how the children’s faces change from unhappiness to joyous expressions when communicating through art feelings and emotions incapable of doing it with words because of their age or the sadness involving each situation they have witnessed.
With arts, kids understand how to focus their anger trough healthy ways and avoid violence. We could have a better world propagating arts in all its expressions helping these programs to continue and cut cost in other areas. Think outside the box for once, and find another way to this budget cuts.
I am one of the many artists in the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival (for which the artists volunteer their time in the month of February). The first year I volunteered, I had my 7 year old son with me. I outlined a cartoon for him to color in, and as he was working on it spectators would praise him and call others to come look at his artwork. As you can imagine he was on cloud nine for weeks to come, and this has inspired him to tap into his artist capabilities. He has since been a registered artist, creating his own work from start to finish at the festival. He is now in the pre-engineering program at Lake Worth Middle School where he will be able to use those skills to design, build and create whatever his heart desires.
The money that goes into the Street Painting Festival goes to offset the costs that includes art supplies and food for the artists. This event draws over 100,000 spectators to the businesses in downtown Lake Worth. Not only has this event sparked the local economy, it has inspired and jump-started my son into a bright future.
I ask you to speak with the Palm Beach County Commisioners and encourage them to support events like this.
Thank you & God bless.
I have been an active participant in the street painting festival since it started in Lake Worth. It brings the community together. I would be very heartbroken if such budget cuts made this yearly event disappear. What would West Palm Beach be without culture and art? What reasons would people have to visit? Our county would just be another bleak, high crime city that allowed hard times to suck the energy and spirit from it. From a financial standpoint, we CANNOT afford to cut arts. We would be cutting tourism and economic growth. From a mother’s standpoint, if any art programs become victims to these cuts, we will just be putting that money back into the system to try to rehabilitate youths who had nothing better to do but to get into trouble. The arts are a very important tool in a community and have numerous benefits. If you cut our programs you choose to cut education, therapy for disabled, tourism, community ties, and the secret ingredient to turn children into creative, productive adults. Please stand strong and don’t hurt our county.
Art is where we retreat to when times are bad. Movies, song, and the visual arts do not exist without us. Keep art alive is to keep hope alive.
Carl
I’m a artist at the Street Painting Festival of Lake Worth. Bringing art to the community through the Festival gives society an experience that they might not ever feel, see, hear or touch. Students from schools and programs that without the funding will not get a chance to expand their minds. This is why the cultural programs are so very much important! KEEP the art and the music and the 300 jobs that are going to be lost.
I am a product of after school programs provided through my school district in California fifty years ago. I’ve seen so many of these programs disappear, but non-profit arts and culture groups have picked up the ball and they are providing the leadership and guidance that our communities need. These small grants go a long way and mean so much. Art and culture should not be denied to people of limited means. These grants are an investment in America’s future and they should be increased not eliminated. Non-profit leaders know they have to search far and wide for both government and private funding to make their programs available to those in need of opportunity and exposure to art and culture. It takes courage to support programs that are below the radar screen, but I am hopeful that our local government will exhibit the courage to save this essential source of funding for organizations that have already made the sacrifices to be competitive and effective. I for one urge our political leaders to step up and support art and culture, big and small, throughout Palm Beach County.
It would be a tragedy to cut the funding program that is needed the most – as it is the small and emerging arts organizations that need this kind of grant program to survive. They are the groups doing grassroots work for the neediest constituents with often the most direct impact on individual lives and in turn our greater community.
This is a short term and shortsighted way to trim a budget! The negative impact felt by eliminating such a crucial grant program would be beyond repair.
No one is unaware of the budget crisis we are facing in this state and budget cuts simply might be necessary. However, I question the Commission’s decision to cut from the bottom, rather than from the top, so to speak.
Large arts organizations with healthier budgets could probably withstand a temporary dip in their funding, as painful as it might be, whereas many emerging groups can not – which means vital arts programs could disappear.
If there is no other choice than to make budget cuts, I urge the Commission to do the hard work of looking for others ways to make them, where the damage felt in the arts community and culture at large would not be potentially permanent.
Amen to that! Couldn’t have said it better myself!
The arts are a vital component in the excellent quality of life we enjoy in Palm Beach County, and to cut already limited funding would cripple and possibly even eliminate some outstanding community programming provided by area non-profits. Research has proven the positive impact of arts education on children: better school attendance rates, higher student motivation, fewer discipline problems, lower dropout rates, improved grades and standardized test scores, more parental involvement and an increase in confidence and self-esteem. Learning how to express themselves in a positive way, through music, art, dance, drama, etc. will help our children grow up to be more confident, productive and successful citizens of our community. Please, please, do not eliminate this important funding!
It is a very sad thing to hear that further budget cuts to the arts are in the works. Having been involved in the art most of my life, as both an artist and working in the arts in the public and private sectors, I know how important our cultural organizations are. Many people do not realize the importance of arts and view them as an “extra” but in reality, they enrich people lives and help children be more well-rounded and grow in all aspects of their life.
The schools have already cut most of their art education budgets; several cultural organization have already had to close their doors. Where will the residents of Palm Beach County have access to rewarding arts experiences?
We all know that the nation and world are facing serious financial issues but to blindly cut ALL funding for arts is a mistake.
I am a member of the Audubon Society of the Everglades and we normally receive funding for Everglades Day at the Loxahatchee Refuge. This event is an annual event which is free to the public and provides educational experiences regarding the environment to children and adults. As a result of the Cultural Council’s funding cutbacks we will not receive the money we need to run this event.
Please do not eliminate this important funding!! These grants give a lot of children and adults educational experiences they would not have if they are not funded.
Can you please tell me when the Everglades Day is slated to take place this year?
Thanks,
John Freeland
My son is happiest when he is playing his trumpet. Without art and music we have no future for our kids. Please do not cut us out of the budget as it would be devastating.
My art students have joined the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival for the past 8 years. We save it for our seniors and 8th graders. The younger students see the photos from the previous years and can’t wait for their turn. Covered in chalk from head to toe they are always proud of what they achieve on the streets. Losing events like these take away their opportunity for to show the public what they have worked so hard to achieve in their classrooms. For us the Lake Worth Festival is a joyous, memorable event which should NOT be lost!
The quality of any community is defined by a combination of an infrastructure that allows one to provide for one’s family along with an environment to foster the family relationship. Should either element be lacking, an inevitable breakdown in the family, and in turn the community, will occur. Cuts to the arts have demonstrated this countless times. To make cuts now, at the point where we are turning the corner with the recession, would show a tremendous lack of foresight. The repercussions last long past the short term economic problems.
Ok. So let me get this strait. Politicians who are being paid too much to sit behind a desk are deciding to take away from others (particularly poor, less fortunate people). Not only does Palm Beach, but also all of Florida throws money away or construction projects that cant even pass hurricane code. The faces of shopping plazas are made a Styrofoam. Condos are built for people who don’t even exist yet. Maybe this is where budget problems lie?
This year I chose to go into AP Art Design at high school, because I love art. The good part is that I have the skills to pass. The bad part is that I don’t all of the materials necessary to produce the best work possible. The school district cut funding for all art programs…that includes our band (of which we have an amazing marching band. Go Bobcats) but also drama, 2D and 3D arts. For those of you who are slow, that means we get no supplies. I have to purchase all supplies myself, which is hard, because stuff is expensive, and it’s next to impossible to find a job anywhere.
For AP Art, we have to have to have 24 pieces of art. Now sense I have taken part in the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival for about 4 maybe 5 years, I was hoping to use that as one of pieces. Not only that, but I have met many other artists through the Festival, some of which are Graphic Designers, which is what I want my profession to be some day. So eliminating the funding that makes this possible would really upset me. And it might upset a few 10,000 other people, no biggy right?
It even took our school 2 weeks to get funding to buy paper towels for the bathrooms. Now, being that I’m a guy, I don’t have a problem wiping my wet hands on my pants, but paper towels are pretty basic.
So in this trying economic time the best conclusion you can come to is to take funding away from a program that allows artists to converge on two little streets in Lake Worth? Because not only does it offer people something to do for two days, but it brings business to every shop on Lake and Lucerne Av. Now if this strikes me as odd please excuse me, but for some reason I think bring people to businesses would be a GOOD thing. But I don’t make pointlessly large amounts of money doing nothing (in fact I make no money and cant buy anything, it’s very depressing). But sense I make I don’t make a lot of money, don’t listen, anything I say would therefore be complete shenanigans.
And as Maryanne Webber so eloquently put forth, the Festival brings about 100,000 bodies to the businesses in Lake Worth, and to the little hotdog venders, because who can honestly resist a slimy, greasy hotdog?
Now to get back to my homework, I have to study for a test.
If anyone in this so called “Palm Beach County Commission” wants to have a go with me, just look me up on Facebook. You do have a Facebook right? Well maybe a Twitter? All MSNBC talks about is political dudes getting their Tweet on.
Alex_Balosie@yahoo.com
Florida is always so quick to cut education and the like. These programs save lives and bring communities together; that should be as much a priority as anything in the budget that doesn’t get cut, especially in these dire economic times.
Perhaps in years to come we can conserve more resources, even during economic growth, so that we may protect ourselves from the next inevitable recession.
This budget cut not only means a lot of lost income to those business that reside in these communities (and probably only are able to stay in business because of the street painting festival in Lake Worth, for example) but more importantly it means a loss of interest in this communities children, tourism, growth and sustainabililty. I no longer live in Palm Beach County, but I do go back occasionally for the various attractions and spend my hard earned money on vendors and in those surrounding businesses. The $320,000 spent goes much further than the programs it supports. Some children are lost without these programs. They turn to drugs, crime and violence in general. In a population area where these problems are so prevalent, one would think that these programs are a necessity. Cut these programs and NOTHING good will come of it. PLEASE find a way to keep these programs alive.
As a repeat participating artist to the Street Paiting Festival it is saddening to hear the possibility of a loss of funding. Besides providing a positive and creative outlet for so many, these festivals also bring to the cities much needed revinue and jobs. When local officials look to “cut back” I believe they should consider any other option before reducing or cutting funding. I would imagine there are is more than one area receiving funds that could handle a loss and the arts are not one of them.
When my child started 6th grade, they’d never played a musical instrument – nor did the majority of other new students; by the end of that first year of middle scool, their band was receiving Superior ratings. Throughout middle school, the students improved and finished last year, in 8th grade, sounding wonderful & continuing to win large-scale competitions. After three years’ hard work, my child’s new high school has no music program.
Participation in Youth Orchestra of P.B. County provides an avenue to continue practising & playing, and performing – for the County’s citizens, all over South Florida, and throughout the State.
Many studies have shown involvement in/with music assists & supports learning in mathematics. Better math scores on the FCAT helps improve schools’ grades. Who doesn’t want that?
Eliminating the funding for the cultural arts programs is a mistake
that you would think our intelligent elected officials could avoid making. These small amounts of money are the very best “fertilizer” for our community, promoting healthy and stimulating events and activities for all citizens, providing excellent alternatives to the void that will be created if these programs are abandoned. There is a reason that Florida is often seen as a cultural wasteland by folks from other states, and eliminating the funding for these programs is one of the biggest reason there is. This small amount is an important and irreplaceable investment in the future of our community. FULLY FUND THE CULTURAL ARTS!!!
These grants should not be cut. These arts programs allow our county’s children to participate in cultural activities that enhance their educations. But perhaps more importantly, cultural activities for children resonate far into the future. The kids who participate in these programs now will be the adults who provide and support cultural activities in our community in the next generation.
I really hope that the grants are not cut especially now with the economy. I have been in the Youth Orchestra for 6 years now and it has been a wonderful experience for me. I have personally grew musically and have made a lot of friendships with kids who also participated. This is also the only full orchestra I have right now because there are not enough kids at my school and the other violin groups I am in are just chamber groups. This is also a great opportunity for kids whose schools do not feature music playing and who like to play an instrument and have talent. Nothing feels better than going on stages with all of your musically talented friends around you and knowing that the concert went well due to all of the practices and rehearsing we did.
Im an artist at the Street Painting Festival of Lake Worth. It gives the community and opportunity to experience art by feel, sight, hear and touch. I think that the cultural programs are very important. KEEP the arts! And the 300 jobs that it creates.
Im an artist of the Street Painting Festival. The community gets to see, feel, hear and touch. Cultural programs are very important to palm beach county. KEEP the arts. Also the 300 jobs.
We are a charitable organization that provides Swing & Jazz to hundreds of people including younger children. It is our purpose to make sure that the music of that era does not die. Other than the paid performers and an administrative person, all others devote their time voluntarily. We feel what we do is that important.The cultural grants we received have been very helpful in making this happen.
Taking the grant program away is as serious mistake.
Rene Zerah
Pres
Swing & Jazz Preservation Society
I am an artist with The Center For Creative Education and I think it would be a huge loss to the children of Palm Beach County to cut cultural grants, please reconsider.
Why kill money to support music and art for the citizens of our county? We want to nurture creativity in our young people—not remove it. If music and art programs are eliminated where can young people turn to learn to broaden their education and learn about culture? They will have no where to go but to the streets and possible drug use and crime.
Our organization has helped high school and college students and we will continue to do so. The grants from the county enable us to widen our reach and provide help to more students.
We implore the commissioners: Please do not eliminate the cultural grant program.
Mort Mazor
Board Member Swing & Jazz Preservation Society
When you look at Florida public schools as compared to other states, we are sorely lacking in progressive education. Where we can make up for this is in arts education that goes beyond public schools. When you have a community that supports the arts, financially and from the heart, you don’t need to rely on overburdened public schools.
Take a look at programs like the Palm Beach Youth Orchestra – the demographics and variety of students. Kids from all races, income levels, walks of life come together to make beautiful music.
With the economy the way it is, small arts organizations have already had to do more with less — there is less private funding to begin with. The work these organizations do is vital — our children are shortchanged at school, where arts programs have already been whittled away. There are tough choices to make in a tough economy, but forsaking the creative development that these cultural organizations provide, and the outlet that they offer is not the solution.
(In the spirit of full disclosure, I do work for a small cultural organization, but one that has NOT benefitted from the program,. I have, however, seen the good work that many of these organizations do.)
The Palm Beach County Cultural Council cannot loose its funding for art and culture in our community! In these very hard times, the one thing we need is to keep our creativity and passions alive with hands on visual and performing arts. Just look above at the number of testamonials in favor of the funding… I only see positive pleas to keep the grants for the arts alive!
Please keep Palm Beach County filled with high arts energy, creative heartbeats and expressive actions!
With the budget cut not only lose income to the businesses who depend on festivals ,but hurting the children of our community. My organization is Hispano-Latino Cultural Aliance,Inc.I run the Cinco de Mayo festival..I also run a dance group in Delray Beach, in which the children enjoy so much, because when they go to perform in our community and all over Palm Beach County, they give all they got to show off their dance talent they have learn.These children range from ages 6 to 19 years of age.With the budget cut that means their won’t be any more events or any where to go and show their talents.Many organizations will disappear and I hope mine won’t be one.I hope and pray the County Commissioners take this in account before they make a big mistake in cutting off the programs.
As professional musicians in South Florida for over 20 years, my colleagues and I see first-hand what the cultural arts brings to our community. We play school concerts, funded by the Cultural Council, giving Palm Beach County kids a chance to hear live classical music and to interact with us. We play a summer concert series for patrons who have been coming to hear us for 18 years and who tell us that they plan their summer vacations around our schedule. We look out from the Kravis Center pit at the packed audiences at Palm Beach Opera performances. Creative expression has existed since the beginning of humankind and it’s obvious that art is meaningful to people in a very profound way. It is not just enriching to our community, but a necessary part of life.
As the Clinical Supervisor for the Boys Residential Programs at Home Safe I see how various grants/fundings and programs affect our foster children on a daily basis. Art and music are tools that allow children to find a voice when they cannot otherwise do so. Some of the experiences they have been through is more then most of us could handle; by giving them the gift of creativity of expression they can find a safe way to articulate what they are feeling and thinking. I think it is terrible that when the going gets tough, the first thing that is looked at cutting is the one area that allows children to be children through art/creative thinking. I truly hope pulling any funding from the art/music grants is reconsidered and it is realized how detrimental pulling the programs would be.
Words cannot say how important the Lake Worth Street Art Festival is to probably all of south Florida. I am coming up on my tenth year doing it and it is my favorite thing I have ever done as an artist. I know how proud I feel when I’m doing it as a hundred thousand people visit each year from not only our area but all over the country and world so I can only imagine what that feeling does for a young inspired student artist.
Please do not even think about getting rid of this very important cultural event!
Dear County Commissioners and Palm Beach Plus Editor:
The County Commission investment in small to mid-size County Arts Organizations represents a high value proposition to enrich our community offerings for residents and visitors of all ages, who can both participate and/or enjoy the programming and products of each organization.
The funds represent a minor percentage of the County’s overall budget and a major portion of each organizations budget, which daily are increasingly difficult to meet. Former staunch supporters of the arts including banks, investment firms, insurance companies, and individuals have severely cut contributions to cultural organizations placing all at risk.
I urge the Palm Beach County Commission to support the arts with the funding recommended by the Palm Beach County Cultural Council Grants Panel through a lengthy and comprehensive application and review process and continue to join in the massive efforts of thousands of residents to provide, maintain, and build diverse educational and cultural options in Palm Beach County.
Sincerely,
Millicent E. Duvall
As a member of the board of directors for over 10 years I have watched the interest and participation of the South Palm Beach County community grow from a handful of people who enjoyed listening to live swing and jazz played by professional musicians. It is the mission of the Swing & Jazz Preservation Society to bring to an enthiastic growing audience of adults and children this music in schools and concerts.
The grants enables our not-for-profit organization with its staff of volunteer workers to continue bringing music of our past to seniors and children alike.
To eliminate the arts programs at the time our children and communities need it most would be a travesty! These programs are using the grant money to provide scholarships to children who excell in their art. Economic conditions may prevent many stundents from following the persuit of their passion.
For many youngsters in the Glades area, the opportunity to cultivate their natural artistic talents will be severely jeopardized by the proposal to cut funding to cultural organizations. Community cultural organizations are the great equalizers in some cases, especially where children with mega-talents cannot afford the cost of training in the artistic discipline they excel in, and further, live so far away from public resources that specialize in their disipline that it is hazardous for them to attempt the long-term commitment. A program from the Glades, Street Beat, Inc. provides excellent arts training in a variety of disciplines; plus, afterschool tutorial and “encourage” to children who cannot travel to enroll in programs of equal worth. Street Beat also offers practical applications in the arts through performance that only a handful of children from this area would have access to without that organization. Please consider this as you move forward with your decision to serve the entire county equitably.
Please do not cut the arts funding. The Lake Worth Street Painting Festival is an event with a national presence. It is well run, it is in no way frivolous in it’s use of funds and attracts huge crowds to the downtown Lake Worth area. The majority of it is acheived with the help of hundreds of volunteers, which is a testament to how popular it is to the community.
I’d rather see the county do an across the board cut in pay for government employees (EVERYONE takes at least a 10% cut in pay). We are all having to tighten our belts and I feel that a lot of people in government have salaries that are not appropriate for the state of our budget. Trim the fat, don’t cut funding for Arts programs.
The funding received from Palm Beach County through the Cultural Council is the foundation of the Children’s Museum of Boca Raton educational programs. How these dollars are spent is well documented as 100% program support, general operating costs are raised through other venues. The Childran’s Museum budget is matched through in-kind donations of time, talent and resources from community artists, educators, boards and committees of community leaders. In the larger picture, the Children’s Museum can also document the success of bringing museum quality programs to the classrooms when together we continually improve student success in many indicators including F-Cat scores. The Children’s Museum of Boca Raton admission price remains at $3 and is free to those who would have trouble paying that–including afterschool programs, special needs groups and community centers. The Museum reaches over 30,000 family members and kids from Palm Beach County alone.
It is the diminishing economic impact at our grassroots level that is in real jeopardy. Because we receive funding from Palm Beach County, other private funders are willing to support us. It is important for them to see government support; municipal, county, state and federal. We were able to build on the Category C-1 funding received last year for children’s programming 4X. Those were dollars that could have easily gone outside of Palm Beach County and 95% of those monies were spent within county lines. In my opinion, that’s stimulus.
The Children’s Museum of Boca Raton has as a call to arms is “Arts & Culture – part of the solution… ask me how!” Continuing support of cultural organizations which have children as their priority not only provides an effective means to develop the creative and critical skills important for future challenges and life options, but stimulates the local economy today. In KidsCents, receiving a quarter and giving back a dollar is what canb be done. Especially in this economy, with that kind of return, we can make a difference too. It is my sincere hope that this impact and its benefits to the community will be at the forefront of your thoughts when making decisions regarding sustaining important funds for the Children’s Museum of Boca Raton for the coming year.