FOR MORE INFO Miami-Dade’s Performing and Visual Arts Task Force will hear testimony from about 150 arts managers representing cultural nonprofits in a series
of public meetings scheduled through September. The subject: public funding of the arts. The panel is composed of 19 local cultural and civic leaders appointed by Miami-Dade commissioners to examine the state of arts groups and facilities and to recommend a plan for county spending on the arts. The fear that drew hundreds to squeeze inside the Miami Museum of Science’s small auditorium Monday afternoon was apparent on the faces of all inside: Without a fight for funding, the end of Miami art is nigh. Attempting to close a $427 million budget gap, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez has proposed immense cuts to grants for art and culture groups, threatening their very existence. Among those affected would be the New World Symphony, the International Hispanic Ballet Festival, the Florida Grand Opera, the Arts Center of South Florida on Lincoln Road and Overtown’s Lyric Theater.
Art museums, galleries, the opera, an independent music store, two TV stations and a Miami-Dade government agency all are finalists to win a share of $4 million in matching grants for their art proposals from the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.