Orange County has suspended some of its grants for arts and cultural organizations. These grants were to support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the arts.
Organizations impacted include Opera Orlando, the Orlando Ballet, and the Orlando Science Center to name a few.
The canceled grants total $200,000 dollars and were earmarked for arts and cultural organizations that provided programming and outreach for patrons with disabilities.
These grants also supported partnerships between arts groups, grassroots and other community organizations that sought to bring the arts to a wider audience.
The grants were cancelled “out of an abundance of caution,” said Vicki Landon in a statement to Central Florida Public Media, a move to protect other funding elsewhere in the county from getting pulled.
“To ensure compliance with a number of directives and not to jeopardize other arts funding, all activities of both the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and Sustainability Committee are suspended indefinitely,” said Landon.
The news comes a week after staff at the National Endowment for the Humanities were put on immediate leave. Days before, dozens of recipients including arts groups, cultural centers, and museums got notices that their grants from the NEH had been canceled.
Arts and culture groups in all 50 states were impacted by these funding cuts.
Last year, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis cut all the funding for arts organizations in Florida, amounting to about $32 million dollars in funding citing “sexual” Fringe festivals, with content that he said would not be age-appropriate for children and families to attend.
But since then, the governor has returned almost that amount to this year’s budget, proposing $27 million dollars toward the arts.
Earlier this year, the governor spoke at length about the importance of the arts, especially as part of statewide celebrations for America’s 250th birthday. He said the state will focus funding on arts programs that highlight that milestone in Florida.
“I think you can get a lot of cultural aspects in this, a lot of art aspects into this to celebrate the great heritage of our country. So, yes, there’s money in there,” said DeSantis. “No, we’re not going to fund the woke ideology, but we are understanding that some of this stuff can be beneficial.”
In an executive order, DeSantis tasked the state’s Division of Arts and Culture to curate events and exhibits that meet that goal.
As part of these efforts, Florida will get, on loan, a number of statues and other artwork of famous Americans. The governor unveiled the first of those statues, a sculpture of President George Washington in the Florida Capitol in February.
Read the full email from Vicki Landon to organizations below:
Dear Advisory Council members, DEI and Sustainability Committee members, and applicants to the DEI and Sustainability grants programs:
Orange County has continued to monitor policies, legislation, and executive orders from both the State and Federal governments. In an abundance of caution to ensure compliance with a number of directives, and to not jeopardize other arts funding, all activities of both the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and Sustainability Committee are suspended indefinitely. The next scheduled meetings (April and May) of both committees are cancelled. Unfortunately, this means we must also cancel the pending Cultural Tourism Supplement – DEI grant and the Cultural Tourism Supplement – Sustainability grant FY25 window. Panelists: thank you so much for your work that you’ve done to review these grants; you may stop reading/scoring. The funds in the pools for these programs will be released to the Blockbuster & Special Events fund and can be utilized for other Arts & Cultural Affairs grant programs.
I’d like to take a moment to recognize the countless hours of work you’ve given to the efforts of these committees. Members and applicants have attended meetings, attended events in our community, partnered with organizations to create new programming ideas, invested time in creating proposals and budgets, and invested time reading and scoring applications. I, and the entire arts community, appreciate every single minute you’ve given to these efforts. Thank you.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Vicki Landon, Orange County Arts & Cultural Affairs Administrator