Miami Cultural Organizations Rally to Demand Full Restoration of Arts Funding

Commuters shuffling through Government Center early Wednesday morning were greeted by drummers, poetry readings, interpretive dancers, and protesters chanting "save the arts," "we want full restoration," and "one year is not enough."

Dressed in bright, lime-green shirts reading, "Miami Dade's Arts Mean Business," Arts Action Miami, a coalition of cultural organizations ranging from dance to live theater to music and visual arts, gathered at the downtown station to demand the complete restoration of funding for Miami-Dade cultural organizations ahead of today's commission meeting. Though the commission did not seek public comment, community members gathered anyway in a show of solidarity.

The demonstration is part of a weeks-long campaign in response to Mayor Daniella Levine Cava's announcement last month that she'd slash $12.8 million in cultural funding and fold the Department of Cultural Affairs into the Library Department. Levine Cava's budget proposal was met with fierce backlash from local arts organizations. In response, the mayor announced Tuesday evening that she'd "nearly fully" restore funding in an amended proposal. The new proposal also crucially maintains the existence of the Department of Cultural Affairs. Still, protesters say that's not enough.

"I don't have any staff to fire," said Gladys Ramirez, executive director of City Theatre and one of the demonstrators at this morning's rally. "There are two of us. I can't pay myself any less." Most of her nonprofit theater's productions are free for the public to attend. She warns that Miami's small and mid-sized cultural organizations, already stretched thin by federal and state budget cuts, will face shutdown if more resources are withdrawn.

"We are not looking for handouts. We are looking for the support of the county we give back to," she added. "We are small business owners, we are job creators, and we provide education opportunities for children. We fill a need in our community. The county needs to support us as much as we've supported our local economy."

Brittany Williams, an independent artist based in District 9 (Homestead, Florida City), added to those sentiments in her remarks to the roughly 40 people at the rally. "Art serves as a prevention — an intervention — to violence that we see on the daily...It's more than personal; it's generational."

Speaking to New Times, Williams reacted to Levine Cava's late-breaking budget backtrack.

"We thank the mayor and commissioners for rectifying the budget, but also, the level of disrespect — to completely erase us from the budget in the first place — is devastating," she said. "Our youth will have access to a jail cell before the arts. This fight is for them, because this is their future."

Though demonstrators expressed some relief about the mayor's latest announcement, the budget proposal still needs approval from commissioners. Protesters vowed to keep up the pressure campaign.

"It's not enough," said Ramirez about Levine Cava's proposal to restore $11.5 million in arts funding. "One of the mayor's talking points is about the cost of living and losing funding. They have left out the fact that we stimulate the economy, and that our cost of living has gone up, too."