Members of Miami-Dade’s arts community only had one minute to make their voices heard during Thursday night’s public hearing on the county’s 2025 budget. Some chose to sing.
“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine,” sang Auriel Hills, a 17-year-old Dillard High School student who volunteers for local arts organizations, in front of the Miami-Dade County commission and Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Hills was among more than a dozen residents, artists and arts leaders who urged the commission and mayor to fully fund the Cultural Affairs department’s grants. The proposed budget cuts nearly $2.5 million from the county’s current $25.5 million budget for art grants. During the four-hour budget hearing, commissioners also heard from owners and tenants from the Soar trailer park that will soon be redeveloped and the mayor restored $16 million for transit funds that was initially cut from the budget. A final vote on the budget is scheduled for Sept. 17 after another public hearing.
Cutting arts funding is a sore subject for Miami’s arts community. In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis shocked Florida’s cultural organizations when he vetoed all arts grants from the state budget, eliminating $32 million slated for hundreds of organizations statewide. As Miami bolsters its reputation as a global arts hub, local artists have felt the strain from a lack of affordable housing and affordable studio space. Further cuts from state and local sources are making the squeeze even tighter.
Levine Cava addressed the arts community’s concerns at the top of the meeting, placing some blame on DeSantis’ veto. But the mayor said the $2.5 million cuts were primarily due to “lower than anticipated” tourist development taxes. The county relies on the tourist development tax and convention development tax revenues to fund 40% of the Cultural Affairs arts grants budget. Miami-Dade saw an increase in tourist revenue immediately after the pandemic, Levine Cava said, “but those levels have largely stabilized.” That means less funding available for cultural grants, she said.
Cultural Affairs runs 20 grants programs to award more than 700 grants a year to cultural organizations and artists, department spokesperson Liliana Hernandez-Constenla told the Herald. If the county doesn’t restore the $2.5 million, grant recipients will receive smaller grants, she said.
“We know the arts play an essential role in our thriving community. They make this a great place to live and raise families and attract new visitors and businesses,” Levine Cava said during the meeting. “We hear you and we’re looking at all possible ways to bridge the gap in the year ahead.”
The mayor said the county is looking for creative ways to find additional funds, including from the private sector. She announced that Jorge Pérez, the art collector and real estate developer, committed $300,000 to the county grant funding. “He is calling upon other philanthropists to step up and join him,” Levine Cava said.
But that did little to console people who work in the arts like Gladys Ramirez, the executive director for City Theatre Miami. “I cannot pay actors or plan productions with promises of future philanthropy,” she said at the budget meeting.
Ramirez said she opposed cuts to the arts budget “regardless of the reason” because thousands of Miami-Dade residents who work in the arts industry rely on grant funding for their salaries.
“Frankly, this feels like we’re being kicked while we’re down,” she said.
Several well-known figures in Miami’s arts community spoke during the meeting to urge the commission to reconsider the budget, including New World Symphony president Howard Herring, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator founder Rosie Gordon Wallace and members of the Arts & Business Council of Miami. Youth choir members from Vocal Youth Miami broke out into song while advocating for arts funding.
Portia Dunkley said it was heartening to see the arts community, especially her daughter Auriel, make their voices heard during such a fraught time for arts organizations .
Dunkley is the founder and CEO of Teeny Violini, a mobile music education program that partners with early learning centers and after school programs in under-served communities. She’s also the founder—and sole staff member—of New Canon Chamber Collective, a South Florida ensemble of Black and brown musicians.
Grant cuts are devastating to small arts organizations like her own, Dunkley said. New Canon lost out on $25,000, about 25% of its annual operating budget, when the governor cut state grants, Dunkley said. She spoke at the Thursday budget hearing to make sure Teeny Violini doesn’t suffer a similar fate. A gap in funding could mean lay offs or closed doors for some small groups, she said.
“Maybe to some people, $2.479 million may seem like a drop in a bucket, but some to people, it’s their livelihood. It’s their lifeblood,” she said.
Dunkley left the county meeting feeling heard. She said she’s happy to see that the mayor acknowledged the arts community’s concerns and is hopeful that the commission will restore the $2.5 million.
“There’s a saying that you don’t really miss it until it’s gone,” Dunkley said. “If we don’t have the arts in our community, that is the death of culture. If the county doesn’t fill this hole, there will be a hole in our community and culture.”
This story was produced with financial support from individuals and Berkowitz Contemporary Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
