Across Broward, nonprofits are fighting to keep cultural connections alive post COVID-19. For nearly four months, the pandemic has disrupted scheduled programming and caused crippling financial hardship for local institutions.
The Broward Arts Relief Fund initiative aims to “ensure our art and cultural foundations are still here on the other side of this pandemic,” explains Phillip Dunlap, director of the Cultural Division.
Totaling
$428,000, these one-time grants have been awarded to 38 organizations central
to arts and culture in Broward County. Funding came from sale proceeds of the
Florida Arts License Plate Program. These grants focus on preserving “general
operations,” especially “staff or people that would otherwise be lost as a
result of the pandemic,” explains Dunlap.
Seeing
the dramatic fallout following the outbreak, Dunlap quickly made the fund a
priority for the division, joining forces with District 5 County Commissioner
Steve Geller. As the County’s representative on the Broward Cultural Council for
the last two years, Geller quickly understood the urgency. The outbreak hit the
region at the high point of the cultural season, which runs “around January
through May,” observes the Commissioner. “We lost the last half of that period,
with no income coming into these organizations. So, we really needed to do
something to make sure they survived.”
Navigating Uncertainty
At its core, the fund functions equally as a cultural and economic stimulus. The Arts and Economic Prosperity study conducted in 2017, valued Broward’s nonprofit arts and culture sector at $414.2 million. “For every dollar invested in the arts and culture industry, there’s a $9 return,” notes Dunlap. At the best of times, however, the liquid finances of these cultural programs remain insufficient. “Even in a healthy economy, the average American cultural non-profit has less than two months working capital or cash equivalent available.”
Rita Cole, Carolyn Johnson, Jovon Jacobs and Yesenia Ozuna in New City Players’ 2019 performance of A Raisin in the Sun ; photo by Ryan Arnst In
such an environment, these grants aim to keep the lights on until cash flow
stabilizes. This was especially important for grant recipients like the New
City Players. The ensemble theater group had a stacked May program, including a
new production, “Water by the Spoonful.” “But all of those opportunities were
lost because of COVID-19,” says Producing Artistic Director Tim Davis.
The
Old Dillard Foundation had planned a “Women in Jazz” review as part of its Live
at the Arts and Heritage House concert series. Much of the organization’s
funding comes from reimbursement grants,” explains Executive Director Dr.
Denise St Patrick-Bell. “So, if we can’t do the performance, we don’t get the
funding. This grant will help us keep our team and contractors, so when we open
up again, we will still be here.”
Larger organizations like the Museum of Discovery and Science also took a harsh financial hit. “Like most science museums, about 70 percent of our annual revenue is generated through earned income, namely admission tickets, birthday parties, gift shop sales and tickets sold to our AutoNation IMAX 3D Theater,” explains Museum President Joseph Cox. In the interim, the grant supports “our museum educators, who are such a vital part of the museum experience.”
Creative Capital
True
to form, many recipients have begun thinking beyond survival, using the funding
to pivot towards more pandemic-proof platforms. Many have created communal experiences while social
distancing, like the Broward County Film Society, which launched a drive-in
cinema night at Pier Sixty-Six to show crowd favorites like a sing-along
version of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
The
digital platforms have become invaluable. The Film Society offers pay-per-view
movies and has made contingency plans to transition the Fort Lauderdale
International Film Festival online if COVID-19 resurges in November, complete
with Zoom Q&As with filmmakers. “We hope it doesn’t come to pass, but we
will be ready to rock and roll if that’s the only alternative,” says Society
President Gregory von Hausch.
Museum of Discovery & Science releases daily videos as part of their Virtual Camp Discovery Sharing similar goals, the Museum of Discovery and Science launched the MODS Challenge, an eight-week program that challenges PreK-12 students to solve real-world problems through STEM learning. Their virtual Camp Discover videos also bring “hands-on science, from slime-making to animal encounters, into homes each day,” says Cox.
Lineup of New City Players’ weekly series Late Show Live with NCP on Instagram; find upcoming performances by NCP here Meanwhile,
the New City Players have reframed the theater experience online. In addition
to the online storytelling event, City Speaks, and Instagram live interviews
with local theater artists, the group is producing five new short plays to
perform via Zoom, and a narrative podcast series. “The relief grant will
directly support this project, providing compensation to the actors, designers,
writer, director, and sound engineer,” says Davis.
Old Dillard Foundation hosted their annual Juneteenth celebration on Facebook Live The Old Dillard Foundation also translated programs for the web, streaming the Teeny Brainiacs Pre-K education program and its annual Juneteeth concert live, featuring performances by Norris Williams and Melissa Star. Continuing their mission to celebrate Black history and art felt particularly crucial now, as the country also reels from the scourge of police brutality against the Black community, which has sparked civil rights protests across the country. “Historically art has always been a force for social change,” says Dr. St Patrick-Bell. “This is how we share and instill our values as a society.”
The
need to preserve vital conversations also drove the Holocaust Documentation
& Education Center to continue their projects, especially those focused on
Broward’s Holocaust survivor community, one of the largest in North America.
“Though our doors are closed, we still did every possible program we could do
online,” says President Rositta Kenigsberg. The center held its annual Olga and
Eugen Guttman visual art and writing competition, streamed films for an online
documentary series, and facilitated a Zoom call with a Holocaust survivor. The
crisis “has certainly changed how we work going forward, but it will never
change why we do it.”
“I’m so proud of how the community has continued to deliver on their mission in any way that they can,” says Dunlap. “I hope this grant communicates to the community how much we’re committed to the richness and the culture of the people that call Broward home.”
Museum of Discovery & Science is now open for in-person summer camp and virtually via “Camp Discovery,” which releases a daily video for camp attendees; more information here Broward Cultural Division has awarded $428,000 in financial assistance to the following 38 Broward-based non-profit cultural organizations impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
The one-time grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 were awarded to help preserve jobs in Broward County’s arts community. The assistance was provided through the Broward Arts Relief Fund, a newly created supplemental grant program.
Curtain Call Playhouse
