COMMENTS ON FRIDAY MORNING GROUP CONCEPT PAPER
Pinellas Prize – Proposed Idea One
The concept of recognizing established artists for lifetime achievement and/or for a certain level of career achievement is laudable but a challenging one for public entities.
The State of Florida has established the Florida Artists Hall of Fame which “honors significant Florida artists” and the Florida Arts Recognition Award which “recognizes individuals or organizations for their outstanding commitment to the arts in Florida”. Neither of these programs carries a monetary award. Many years ago the State also established an Individual Artists Fellowship Grant Program that awards funds to artists through a competitive grants process, based on the quality of their creative work. Those fellowship awards are currently $5,000 each and the process continues to be highly competitive. In south Florida, five county arts councils (Miami-Dade, Broward, Martin, Palm Beach and Monroe) work together as the South Florida Cultural Consortium to award grants of $7,500 and $15,000 to visual and media artists.
The Pinellas County Arts Council established the Artists Resource Fund grant program approximately 20 years ago to assist artists with funding for special projects and professional development. In the most recent 05-06 grant cycle the maximum grant request allowed was $2,000 with a total amount awarded of $17,100. The guidelines have been revised for the 06-07 cycle to focus on professional development with a maximum award of $1,000.
While some of the recognition programs involve nominations, and the grant programs require applications, the review and selection processes are consistently made by independent review panels/committees such as an arts council or an independent discipline-based peer review panel appointed by the sponsoring agency.
The Pinellas Prize proposal, which includes 2 awards at $50,000 each with an additional $50,000 each for the development of new creative works, would far exceed any of the recognition or grant programs described above. I think it would be difficult to justify this level of expenditure of public dollars for two individuals. The apprenticeship component expands the involvement of individual artists and creates professional development opportunities, but those opportunities involve creating the work of the Pinellas Prize recipients, as opposed to their own creative work. This element of the proposal is most like a traditional fellowship program, and without the “apprenticeship” aspect could be developed further if new funding were made available.
Creativity Center – Proposed Idea Two
I think the focus of this initiative is to generate employment opportunities for artists beyond the traditional development/performance of their artwork. If there are artists in the community that have the skills and training to consult in the area of “integrating the creative process into planning and development”, they could consider developing a plan on their own to market those services to the appropriate clients. I would view it as an opportunity for individual artists or a group of artists to exhibit some entrepreneurship. There are workshops offered from time-to-time by various chambers and Pinellas County Economic Development on developing business plans, marketing, entrepreneurship, etc., that might be helpful. An organization such as the Tampa Bay Business Committee for the Arts might be available to identify a business volunteer to assist with planning, and they might also provide a potential client base.
Because the concept of an actual “Creativity Center” is mentioned (with a facility, website, publications, exhibitions, etc.), another approach might be for an existing nonprofit agency to provide and promote the service as one of their programs, using a fee for service approach.
If this consulting service is identified as a need in the community and there is a market for it, then I think it would be most appropriate for the agencies and businesses that use the service to pay for it themselves.
Judith Powers, Director
Cultural Affairs Department
March 5, 2007
ADDENDUM:
Additional Support
It is my understanding that the Concept Paper prepared by the Friday Morning Group was conceived as a county-wide project and that no municipalities have been contacted for funding.
Judith B. Powers, Director
Cultural Affairs Department
March 21, 2007