A group of Orange County Democrats rallied against cuts to statewide arts funding during the Orlando Fringe Festival.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith and U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost spoke at a panel called “The State of Arts in F%king Florida” during Saturday’s festival, entering its 35th year which once drew the ire of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
At the same time, top budget negotiators are meeting behind closed doors to decide Florida’s spending plan. The Legislature failed to pass a budget during the Regular 60-day Session so the budget talks resumed this month.
In the latest budget offers from Friday, the House lowered its $23 million for cultural and museum grants to $20 million in order to counter the Senate’s $11.8 million for the grants.
DeSantis vetoed the line item entirely in 2024.
Also in the negotiations: Not only how much funding goes to the arts, but which ones get it?
The House is asking for the first $12.5 million from the $20 million to go to arts groups recommended by Secretary of State Cord Byrd. The remaining money would be held in reserve and a second list of leftover projects from the ranked list by the Florida Council on Arts and Culture would get the rest.
Smith called it “cherry picking” for arts and giving the Secretary of State’s top choice first priority in order to appease DeSantis to prevent another catastrophic veto.
Nearly 600 organizations across the state, from operas, ballets, dance companies, theater groups, science centers and museums are seeking $4,000 up to $150,000.
The 122 projects endorsed by Byrd include the Orlando Ballet, Miami Children’s Museum, the Florida Aquarium, the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, the Naples Players and Bonnet Springs Park in Lakeland.
One group that did not appear to apply for grant funding this year — the Orlando Fringe Festival.
Every year, the Fringe occupies the local theaters and grassy space in Loch Haven Park off Princeton Street for two weeks in May. Artists perform a mix of serious drama, stunning acrobats and comedy that range from the beautiful and deep to the downright self-proclaimed weird. You can see a show performed inside a van in a parking lot or a powerful monologue on a stage that brings you to tears. A one-woman show about postpartum motherhood struggles is complete with a giant vagina as a prop.
At a 2024 press conference, DeSantis slammed the festival as a “a sexual festival where they are doing all this stuff” as he cut $32 million from arts and museum funding.
“How many of you think your tax dollars should go to fund that? Not very many people would do that,” DeSantis said at the time.
The Fringe responded by inviting him to a show. DeSantis did not appear to take them up on the offer.
Smith called that moment a “fork in the road” as DeSantis vetoed $32 million from the budget, leaving arts groups scrambling and forced to make tough choices from laying off employees or canceling shows.
Two years after the Fringe controversy, the Fringe continues on.
The Kids Fringe doesn’t advertise any more drag queen story times like it once did pre-DeSantis controversy.
However, Fringe managing director Melissa Frizinger insisted the Fringe has changed “absolutely nothing” after the DeSantis pushback as she spoke at Saturday’s panel.
Frost, Eskamani and Smith defended arts funding as they pointed to how the arts not only improves residents’ quality of life but makes sense financially. Every $1 of taxpayer investment leads to a $9 return from job creation and the local economy, Smith said.
“It’s not like we don’t have the money,” Eskamani added, pointing to the state paying $1 billion for Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center which is expected to be closed.
Smith also argued it wasn’t a partisan issue, pointing to 2022 when under DeSantis, the state invested $46 million into the cultural and museum grants and added Republican donors strongly support local arts.
The Democrats said arts funding is caught up in a larger cultural war in Florida that is meant to censor more liberal voices and crack down on First Amendment rights.
“In fascism and dictatorships and authoritarianism, they always go for the arts. It’s arts and education are the first things,” Frost said at the Fringe panel.
Frost urged arts supporters to also pay attention to the open Orange County Mayor’s race and push candidates to publicly pledge to support the arts and then hold them accountable.
With government funding threatened, Frizinger, said the Fringe is finding new ways to draw up community support from fundraisers and sponsorships.
“It all matters so much,” Frizinger as she urged Fringe-goers to give money, small or large amounts. “Every dollar counts.”
The panel posed a question: Will the situation get better or worse for arts funding?
Smith said he has hope because DeSantis is term-limited and leaving office at the end of the year.
“We get to hit the reset button in November of 2026,” Smith said, drawing applause from the crowd. “We will have a new Governor and we will be able to start from scratch in trying to restore a funding process for the arts that was decided by subject matter experts, not by politicians, and a funding mechanism that works. I think that we can get there again.”
