A group of dedicated young musicians in the Hollywood-based Florida Youth Orchestra gave up part of their spring break last month to travel to the state capital to protest proposed budget cuts that would threaten nonprofit arts organizations throughout Florida.
The regional orchestra packs 1,000-seat venues in South Florida and has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and twice at Carnegie Hall in New York City. But the March 17 performance had special significance for close to 70 orchestra members who made the 357-mile bus trip to Tallahassee to present a free concert in the Capitol courtyard for passersby, including state legislators considering funding cuts to nonprofit arts groups.
The Florida Youth Orchestra, which was founded in 1988 and now boasts 360 members ages 6 to 19 from the tri-county area, relies on funding from the state and Broward and Miami-Dade counties — especially with corporate and individual donations dwindling in an economic downturn.
Government funding “has allowed us to create programs and serve more of the community,” said orchestra president Myra Weaver, who founded the group with her late husband, Bob. These additional free services include interactive children’s concerts in communities of need and after-school music education programs at nine Title I schools and for Kids In Distress clients, who also benefit from a summer music camp.
“These kids are learning something that might change their lives forever,” Weaver said.
She said it’s “embarrassing” that Florida was second in the nation in appropriations for the arts back in 1994 and is currently ranked 49th. “It shows no regard for the arts as an economic factor,” Weaver said.
She said Florida benefits from more than $446 million in annual revenues from nonprofit arts organizations. “Every dollar we get from the state, we give back tenfold,” she said. “It’s counterproductive to cut funding for the arts when the return is so great.”
The benefits students receive from an arts education are incalculable: not only improved proficiency in math but also other important skills, such as cooperation, commitment, focus and flexibility, Weaver stressed. “These are attributes that will last a lifetime, even if they don’t become a professional musician.”
To drive home the importance of an arts education, student musicians fundraised to pay their own way to Tallahassee, giving up treasured vacation days, and put on a show outside the bustling Capitol building, where signs proclaimed that they were “On A Mission To Save The Arts.”
“We wanted to put a face on our funding: This is what your dollars buy. They represented all arts groups,” said Weaver, who the previous day visited the offices of 44 state lawmakers to distribute concert invitations and literature on the benefits of an arts education.
“I felt like they were impressed that we presented ourselves personally. We definitely motivated some of the legislators who might otherwise not have gotten the whole picture,” she added.
Late last month, Weaver was holding out hope of some budget tweaking that would result in at least a partial preservation of arts allocations. In the wake of Gov. Rick Scott’s recommendation of “zero dollars for arts and culture,” Florida’s nonprofit arts organizations found a supporter in state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, who “gathered a coalition of people to fight back and restore some of the funding,” Weaver said. “[Lawmakers] had no intention of even discussing it.”
Less funding than in the past would be “nowhere near what we need,” she added. “We depend on state and county funds. You know how many organizations will have to shut their doors? That’s a tremendous loss to our economic and our social structure.”
But opposition to spending tax dollars to keep nonprofit arts organizations afloat has perhaps never been more apparent than at this time of budget crunches at every level. Marketing consultant Steve Phelan, who responded to an e-mail campaign on the arts funding issue, went so far as to say that unless people are willing to directly support arts group, “they don’t deserve to exist.” Phelan said he devotes time every week to fundraising and volunteering for nonprofit organizations, including community theaters.
“None of those hours are spent bullying the government to steal money from other people to pay for them,” he said. “I think the arts are very important. But I’m tired of paying for other people’s entertainments, especially when they are not self-supporting.”
The Florida Youth Orchestra is “looking for funding 24/7,” Weaver stressed. “We write grants, we do fundraisers. We leave no stone unturned in trying to keep this going. We definitely need the community to come on board and recognize what they have to lose.”
The Florida Youth Orchestra is open to ages 6 to 19 who reside in Broward, Miami-Dade or Palm Beach County. There are various orchestra divisions to accommodate all levels of playing ability. Weekly rehearsals take place during the school year on the campus of Nova Southeastern University in Davie. Auditions are held the first Saturday in June.
For more information, visit www.floridayouthorchestra.org.
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These are my friends, people that love, love, love music. We need so badly to keep this alive. I've been in FYO for 8 years now, and it's become my learning place and my home. Without it, I don't know where I'd be.
Thank you, Ms. Weaver. I'm proud of all of you!
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The creation of this orchestra is a manifestation of at least part of the south seeing the wisdom in support of the arts.
Congratulations to the musicians and the organizers!