The Volusia County Council voted Tuesday to restore cultural and arts funding for the year, but to cancel cultural grants in the county moving forward.
That means more than $570,000 dollars in funding has been restored.
It was pulled in October over concerns about venues with what one councilman called, “non-family friendly events” that were LGBTQ themed, like Pride and drag shows.
In a reversal of that decision, the council voted 5-2 to restore $571,926 dollars to 31 arts organizations for this year, but to stop offering the cultural grants moving forward.
This year’s funding won’t go to The Athens and Shoestring theaters, which pulled out of the grant cycle in order to secure arts funding for other organizations, as they knew content in some of their shows could be objectionable to the council.
Councilman Jake Johansson connected his yes vote to his experience as a veteran.
“I’m very moved by art. I’m an artist myself of sorts. I won’t show you the pictures, but I’ve dabbled in oil and acrylic paints as a way to manage, I wouldn't call it PTSD, but the stresses of military life,” Johansson said.
Councilman Don Dempsey was also a yes vote. He said the arts changed his life as a young man. Dempsey said he’s now an attorney because of his learned love of what he calls “wordsmithing.”
“I had to take English lit as a kid and I learned about Robert Frost and (Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening) that poem. It really hit me. And I didn’t want to take it. And I’ve learned even Pink Floyd lyrics, if you listen to them, they’re pretty impactful,” Dempsey said.
The council overwhelmingly said they needed to cancel the cultural grants beyond this year, due to the possibility of a property tax amendment on the November ballot.
Council members said those property tax changes, if approved by voters, could strip the county of crucial funding for roads, stormwater management and fire protection, among other needs.
Chair Jeff Brower was a reluctant yes vote on restored funding, even though he only supports it for this year.
“I’m going to take a beating on this I know for all of you people here. I support the arts. I live in a household full of artists,” Brower said. “But for me, the government does not have the moral authority to take money, to appropriate money from our residents from around the county and hand it to another business. It's just immoral to me, and I can’t vote for it.”
“I’ll change my mind this year, because I want a clean break on this. I don’t want to hold these people hostage,” Brower said.
Many members of the public spoke, mostly in support of the arts and cultural funding being restored, and being restored permanently.
Kristine and Cam Hewett, a mom and her 10-year-old son, said the arts enrich both of their lives, especially as a home school family.
“I've learned new skills, tried things I didn't think I could do, and I'm growing as an artist every week,” Cam said. “Art helps me express things I can't always say with words. When I'm creating something, I feel like my best self.”
“As a homeschool mom, for the last six years,” Kristine Hewett said, “these programs are vital for our children that aren't going to public school and aren't getting the opportunity to have art on their own every day. We want the cultural grant program to stay and, like he said, if you guys made this promise, let's keep it.”
Mark Carstens, who is on the Historic Preservation Board of Volusia County, said the arts are a crucial part of democracy, and preserving arts, culture and history is what the nation's founders would have wanted.
“We're going into our 250th year as a nation,” Carstens said, “and the founding fathers would want these resources to be preserved and maintained in perpetuity, forever to maintain these resources for our children and our grandchildren, because it's important. We cannot forget history. History is important to our nation, our country, and we need to, we need to make America great again.”
Watch the full county council meeting here:
