WADA quickly produced a video with leaders of local arts organizations hit by the funding cuts – Studio@620, American Stage, the St. Petersburg Jazz Festival, Academy of Ballet Arts, Creative Pinellas, the Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts, Imagine Museum and Jobsite Theater among them – discussing expected impacts like program and personnel cuts and reduced community outreach that could be particularly devastating for small arts groups.
In the video, Academy of Ballet Arts Artistic Director Suzanne Pomerantzeff says state funds allowed the nonprofit studio, which has produced more than 100 professional dancers, to offer programming to children from economically disadvantaged families. In another sequence, bright murals, the Imagine Museum and WADA’s ArtsXChange Campus, a hub of artist studios, galleries and arts-related businesses, disappear from the city’s landscape.
“What if you were to take the arts out of St Pete?” WADA Executive Director Markus Gottschlich says. “Take the murals out. Take the museums out. Take the venues out, the music, all the galleries. It would be a very different place without the arts.”
The video was the start of a three-step lesson in the power of grassroots advocacy.
In late July, WADA convened a forum on arts funding with artists, arts group leaders, the media, WADA Board Chair Mark Aeling, St. Pete City Council member Gina Driscoll, the city’s Director of Arts, Culture and Tourism Celeste Davis and St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership CEO Jason Mathis. That night, Driscoll pledged support for committing one percent of the city’s budget to the arts.
“That’s where the idea of one percent for the arts was brought up,” Gottschlich says. “It’s not a brand-new idea. There are cities in the country that dedicate one percent of their budget to the arts. It’s not like that was an invention right there on the spot but it felt like this would be an opportune moment to reintroduce the discussion around one percent for the arts.”
It’s also a funding level the nonprofit St. Petersburg Arts Alliance pushes for in its comprehensive arts strategy.
Next, it was time to petition City Hall. Artists, arts organization leaders and advocates turned out at City Council meetings and other forums urging officials to increase arts funding and help the museums, theaters, dance companies, performing arts centers, music ensembles and organizations that played a vital role in revitalizing St. Pete’s urban core.
“We’re calling ourselves the ‘City of the Arts’ in St. Pete so it’s just the right thing for the city to contribute to that and not just leave it up to the free market economy because the free market economy does not necessarily provide for diverse programming,” Gottschlich says. “The arts play a huge part in placemaking and quality of life. They are the reason people come here and stay here. It creates the feeling of a real city when you have a thriving arts and culture scene. People will want to participate and go out and spend money on cultural events. We fine-tuned our messaging on that. Each person highlighted a different aspect of why more funding is needed, what it will do, so on and so forth. I think our messaging was on point. City Council realized this is a cause they need to get behind.”
Their advocacy produced results. The City Council has agreed to increase the current budget year’s arts funding by $695,000, a move that needs to be finalized during their September 12th meeting. That money includes $200,000 for artist grants, $50,000 for WADA, $420,000 for arts organizations impacted by DeSantis’ veto and $25,000 for the SHINE Mural Festival. The City Council also plans to increase arts funding for the upcoming budget year in hearings on September 12th and 26th.
Gottschlich, a Steinway piano artist with a performing arts background who took over as WADA executive director in the summer of 2022, says, “The city has really stepped up.”
“I’m very impressed with the city’s response and the city’s response time,” he says. “I’ve worked in different markets: New Mexico, New Jersey, New York and Miami. It’s the first time I’m seeing this kind of partnership. St. Pete’s response has been exemplary. I hope other cities in Florida can see how we got to where we are and take a page out of this playbook.”
In addition to the St. Petersburg City Council budget meeting, arts funding is also the focus of a Pinellas County Legislative Delegation meeting that starts at 1 p.m. Friday, September 13th at the St. Petersburg College Seminole campus.
What: St Petersburg City Council budget hearings
When: Sept. 12th and 26th at 6 p.m.
Where: City Hall, 175 Fifth St. N.What: Pinellas County Legislative Delegation meeting on arts funding
When: September 13th, 1 p.m.
Where: St. Petersburg College Seminole campus
For more information, go to Warehouse Arts District Association
