Do the essentials of living mean a world without art? | Opinion

Outside the creative industries, there’s a perception that art is something frivolous or expendable when it comes to allocating expenditures big or small. Perhaps that was the logic behind the billion-dollar state funding veto that recently decimated the South Florida cultural arts space.

Less than 10 years ago, Florida ranked third in America for arts funding. The 2024 veto now puts Florida dead last.

Specifically for Broward County, this means 54 grant requests will go unfunded and $3.3 million in arts funding will no longer be coming to our community. This funding supports jobs, programming, tourism and contributes to a $386 million local economic impact.

Arguably, we could all certainly survive on just the bare basics — food, clothing and shelter. But is survival really what life is all about? Certainly, local real estate developers don’t seem to think so, citing Broward’s vibrant cultural arts scene as a backdrop in selling buyers on the promise of a sophisticated, cosmopolitan lifestyle, for example.

Beyond Broward’s many visual arts galleries and performing arts stages, witness the creative spark igniting virtually every other industry on the economic spectrum: The chef whose Instagramable culinary presentations draw foodies from around the world. The architect who designs graceful buildings to highlight the area’s best attributes. The jeweler whose creations draw luxury spenders. The industrial engineer whose innovations launch paradigm-changing manufacturing and technology marvels.

In a timely coincidence, ArtServe’s upcoming “Ready Made” exhibit will feature these types of non-traditional artists whose work embellishes our lives with a unique richness that would never otherwise be accorded its due space on a gallery wall, like florists, fashion designers, wine bottle label designers, hairstylists and pastry chefs, just to name a few.

Florida’s devastating arts funding veto now warrants yet another serious look at the economic impact created by these arts-based businesses, which are just like any other that also employs and sustains secondary vendors through the purchase of goods and services such as catering, marketing, bookkeeping and more.

We must also contemplate whether we want to create the kind of community in which the artists behind these businesses can thrive.

The hard economic numbers are already on the books. The heavily cited national 2022 Arts and Economic Prosperity 6 Study (AEP6) showed that a lively arts and culture scene keeps residents spending locally, strengthens the visitor economy, sparks creativity and innovation, and imparts people with a sense of improved personal well-being, among many other tangible returns on investment.

With the financial damage now done, the only question remains whether we collectively value the arts enough to do something about it.

Jason R. Hughes is the CEO of ArtServe in Fort Lauderdale.