OLD BUSINESS  6.

COMMITTEE MEMORANDUM

KEY INTENDED OUTCOME:
Enhance Cultural and Recreational Activities

HISTORY:

On March 13, 2019, Commissioner Gongora requested the Neighborhood/Cultural Affairs Committee (NCAC) discuss bringing back the Miami Beach Arts Gala and Sleepless Nights.

Launched in 2010, the Miami Beach Arts Gala was a fundraiser to support non-profit local South Florida artists who exhibit and perform in the City of Miami Beach.

The 2011 Miami Beach Arts Gala was held on October 22, 2011, in the Miami Beach Convention Center. Its stated purpose was to raise funds to be administered by the Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council ("CAC") know then as the Miami Beach Arts Gala Grants. The Miami Beach Arts Trust, a private, not-for-profit Florida Corporation, served as Fiscal agent for the Gala and donated $20,000 to the City for four (4) grants. The CAC provided $8,000 for the Gala.

The Miami Beach Arts Gala Grants were to support cultural programs and projects in the City of Miami Beach, with an emphasis on providing aid to neighborhood arts groups and increasing access to the arts for Miami Beach residents and visitors. Qualified 501(c)3 organization with  an annual budgets less than $350,000 applied for minimum grant awards of $5,000 for projects and program occurring within the fiscal year.

Post the last Miami Beach Arts Gala, small neighborhood and emerging arts organization grant requests are now handled through the CAC grant program which has been able to grow the access to funding for these groups. Currently, CAC has incorporated the review, processing and nurturing (e.g. capacity building workshops) of these organizations into the overall CAC grant program with great success funding approximately 25-30 small grants annually.

In 2007, Miami Beach hosted the all-night arts Sleepless Night Festival. Sleepless Night is a collaboration of all the city’s major cultural institutions, theaters, galleries and arts organizations, as well as hotels, shops, nightclubs, restaurants, and individual artists and presenters. Sleepless Night  included major cultural institutions such as the Miami City Ballet, Miami International Film Festival, Jewish Museum of Florida, Miami Design Preservation League, Miami Light Project, Tigertail Productions, Bass Museum, Miami Beach Cinematheque, New World Symphony, and the Wolfsonian-FIU, among many other participants.

From dance performances and sculpture gardens to live bands and street parades, Sleepless Night was a free, 13-hour, innovative cultural affair which started at 6:00 p.m. on a Saturday evening in the fall season until sunrise at 6:00 a.m. Sunday.

In 2009, the City presented the second edition of Sleepless Night, presented by Tourism and Culture and the Cultural Arts Council. The event was produced in-house by staff in response to the 2005 and 2007 Community Satisfaction Surveys in which resident expressed their desire for more free cultural activities. A third edition occurred in 2011.

Sleepless Night was created by the CAC to restore confidence in the City's commitment to the arts and to strengthen our reputation as the region's prime cultural tourism destination. The successful international Nuit Blanche model was chosen because it offered the opportunity to reach all of the diverse populations of South Florida, and to create community be removing the barriers that often disenfranchise some segments of the population.  Additionally, Nuit Blanche was been triumphant at addressing Florida, and to create community by removing the barriers that often disenfranchised some segments of the population as well as addressing the ultimate issue facing the arts today, audience-building, by engaging the public with a wide range of cultural presentation woven into the fabric of a social event.

The 2011 event had a budget of $605,000 (the 2009 budget was $685,000, the 2007 budget was $396,000) including grants from the Knight Foundation ($200,000 for 2011/2012 and $33,000 from various corporate sponsors).

ANALYSIS:

In 2019, Tourism and Culture introduced the first Miami Beach Culture Crawl aimed to get residents and tourists to explore and become re-acquainted with Miami Beach cultural offerings.

See Culture Crawl recap:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2AXhAksGjo

The Culture Crawl was a great success and offered complimentary admission to some of the nation's most prestigious institutions. Tourism and Culture is currently working with eight cultural institutions to produce monthly special programming with includes open studios and galleries, outdoor films, live music, exclusive tours, night gardens and exclusive, free trolley service to specially chosen stops  within the City that will be 100% free.

Though the first Culture Crawl occurred in the South Beach community, plans are being made to extend to Mid-Beach and North Beach as demand dictates. In addition, staff is looking to include restaurants and hotels that celebrate and showcase art and culture (e.g. performance art, fine art, etc.).

The annual budget, for monthly Culture Crawls, is projected to be $120,000 if approved as part of the FY 19/20 budget process.

During the March 13, 2019 NCAC meeting, discussion was deferred until Commissioner Gongora could meeting with the Administration/Tourism & Culture team to discuss cost benefit of producing Sleepless Nights. 

On June 27, 2019 that administration spoke with Commissioner Gongora on the topic.  The administration did not recommend spending this amount of money on one single night of art, but suggested that we utilize some additional funding to begin producing a few larger installations as part of the monthly Culture Crawl activations.

Commissioner Gongora said that he thought perhaps the Culture Crawl did not need to take place every month, and perhaps could take place every 2-3 months in order to allow budgets to be larger.  The administration agreed, but mentioned that consistency is key, and if the events were not taking place every month, the monthly offerings may not have the same interest from residents and tourists, but they would discuss with cultural institutions to see what their recommendation would be.

The administration has a meeting with all Cultural anchors on July 16, 2019 and will be discussing these options with them and will provide a verbal report at the next NCAC meeting.

CONCLUSION:

The Administration spoke with Commissioner Gongora to discuss this item, and it was agreed that the administration would look at programming some larger installation and performance art pieces as part of the upcoming Culture Crawl activations, starting in October 2019, as a way in which to create larger, and more public cultural offerings.