Broward County State of the Arts 2024

On Thursday, October 24, the Broward Cultural Division hosted the State of the Arts 2024 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. This event was free and open to the public. Numerous art leaders and political figures were in attendance to show their support for Broward County’s arts & cultural community.

The event began with a beautiful live performance by Fushu Daiko.

 

Next, Janet Erlick, the Broward Cultural Council Chair gave a few statements before introducing the next guest speaker, Commissioner Michael Udine, who shed light on the $1.7 million budget increase for the 2024-2025 fiscal year for the Broward Cultural Division to fund the arts festivals and events throughout Broward County.  “The arts give back immensely. Our investment in them is an investment in our residence, visitors, businesses and in all of you”, Commissioner Michael Udine said as he closed his speech.

 

Next, Janet Erlick introduced Senator Steve Geller to the stage. A huge supporter of the arts & cultures, Senator Geller, let us know that “the arts are not only good for the soul but, they also are great at helping to bring business to Broward and helping tourism to Broward.” Geller has been serving as the County Commissioner Representative to the Cultural Council for the last six to seven years and one of his top priorities is that each year he lets the County Administrator, Monica Cepero know that he would like the budget to be increased for the Broward Cultural Division. He mentioned in his speech that there have been complaints that funding has mostly gone to the arts in Fort Lauderdale and East Broward. “The way to fix this is not reducing any money in the East but, also making sure that the entire county is served.” He revealed that the former ArtServe facility on Sunrise will be transformed into the West Broward Cultural Center, a center with multi-disciplinary space for rehearsal, performance, exhibition space and more to supply equitable access to the arts for all areas of Broward County. The center has approved an architect and design meetings have been underway.

Monica Cepero, Broward County’s administrator let us know that Broward County is one of the most diverse places in the country with over 170 countries represented and over 147 different languages spoken in the area. Cepero ended her speech with “Broward County is truly the best place to live, learn, work, play.”

 

Next to hit the stage was Phillip Dunlap, the Broward Cultural Division Director, who led the way in further celebrating Broward arts & cultures. “One of the goals in our division is to build capacity and learning, which means in addition to providing financial support, we look for ways to effectively grow our sectors’ capacity to be stronger, more sustainable businesses. It often gets lost in the conversation but, our nonprofits and our artists are small businesses”, Dunlap stated. This year the county released a new grant program, the Capacity Building Grant for art nonprofits that funds strategic planning, board development, and more. Dunlap stated in the coming year this grant program will also provide multiyear grants to two nonprofit organizations to partially fund key new positions, so these nonprofits can “build the capacity to expand their work, increase their ability to be effective businesses and sustain these positions once the grant period ends.”

Dunlap revealed that in the new year, the County will be unveiling a new public art lighting installation on Andrews Avenue Bridge. The lights on the bridge will change colors based on the time of day using energy efficient LED technology.

(Part 1)

 

The Broward Arts Metaverse (BAM) was revealed during the State of the Arts. BAM is a virtual world that can be accessed from anywhere on a web-connected device, where people can explore public art around the county from the port, parks to the airport. It was also revealed that Broward County is the first in the world to put a public art collection in the Metaverse.

(Part 2)

 

Closing out the event was another outstanding performance by Fushu Daiko.

 

Photo and Videos Credit: Arts Decoder Miami

Date Posted: October 24, 2024