Orange County commissioners unanimously approved the most money ever for the cultural tourism grant program on Tuesday — nearly $4.2 million.
More organizations than ever were recommended to receive the funding, said Terry Olson, administrator of the county’s Arts & Cultural Affairs department, and some received extra money through a new initiative to encourage established cultural entities to work with up-and-coming groups spotlighting cultural diversity.
Forty organizations were recommended and approved for funding, six more than last year and a far cry from the program’s first year in 2002, when only four groups received money. The program supports organizations with projects that bring visitors to Orange County. It is funded by the Tourist Development Tax, a 6% levy on hotel and other overnight stays.
Of the roughly $4.16 million going to organizations such as the Garden Theatre in Winter Garden, the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center in Maitland and Timucua Arts Foundation in Orlando, $162,566 is for the new Collaboration Supplement program.
That program was designed to assist emerging and minority-led organizations that might not qualify for a cultural-tourism grant on their own, but are teaming with an established organization on an event. The established organization, such as Orlando Fringe, Opera Orlando and Orlando Family Stage, is given the funding supplement to work with the less-established group.
In this year’s pilot program for the initiative, 11 cultural nonprofits received funding for 16 different collaborations with organizations, including Black Theatre Girl Magic, Casa de Mexico Central Florida, the Haitian American Art Network and Hope CommUnity Center.
“We do want to engage as many diverse components of our community as we possibly can,” said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings in support of the collaboration supplement. “This is a wonderful start.”
Olson said his office hosted a “meet and match” between emerging and established organizations to get the program off the ground a few months ago.
“Now that we’re planning for next year, I think we’re going to have even more significant collaborations,” he told commissioners. “I think this pilot was successful and would like to develop it more.”
This year’s funded projects are estimated to have a cultural impact of $94.6 million, Olson said, with a projected attendance of nearly 1.8 million, of which about 460,000 would be tourists.
The six organizations receiving cultural-tourism funding for the first time are the Bamboo Center for the Arts in Winter Park, the Caribbean American Passport Multicultural Initiative, D.T.O. Jazz Fest Inc., Florida FIRST Robotics Education Foundation, The Renaissance Theatre Company of Orlando and the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation.
In other cultural news from Tuesday’s meeting, Olson and commissioners briefly discussed the future of FusionFest, the celebration of cultures found throughout Central Florida. The festival, which drew more than 20,000 people last year, is outgrowing its current location on the lawn of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, and commissioners spoke in favor of making the event more accessible to people throughout Orange County.
Olson showed a list of possible future sites, including West Oaks Mall, the Orange County Convention Center, Turkey Lake Park, UCF, Loch Haven Park, Camping World Stadium and the Central Florida Fairgrounds.
This year’s festival, the sixth, will be Nov. 25-26 in front of the downtown arts center.
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