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Fort Pierce approves $15,000 sponsorship for Zora Neale Hurston festival amid debate over arts fund rules
Summary
The City Commission voted to sponsor the Zora Experience Festival with $15,000 after the Arts & Culture Advisory Board recommended limited funding uses; the meeting included discussion about legal constraints on the Arts in Public Places fund and a $129,000 available balance.
The Fort Pierce City Commission voted to approve a $15,000 sponsorship for the Zora Experience Festival after the Arts and Culture Advisory Board presented recommended parameters for use of the funds.
Julie Pouliot, chair of the Arts and Culture Advisory Board, told the commission the board reviewed the festival budget and narrowed city support to sanitation, security, insurance, permitting and core artistic elements such as stages and children’s educational activities. “We tried to look at the parameters of what was safe for the public, what was necessary as far as sanitation, security, trash receptacles, insurance, permitting, etc.,” Pouliot said.
The board’s recommendation was prompted in part by a legal question over the permitted uses of the city’s Arts in Public Places fund. Pouliot said the ordinance as written restricts the fund to “visual professional art” — murals, sculptures and similar permanent works — and does not explicitly authorize festival or educational programming. She told commissioners the board has asked the city attorney to clarify the fund’s allowable uses; she said the fund can also revert to the general fund if not spent within three years.
Commissioners discussed the potential to use the fund for murals and other capital visual art projects tied to development projects that generate the fund. Pouliot said the fund currently had approximately $129,000 available for use, a figure she presented from the board’s materials. Commissioner Gaines and others urged making the festival a signature event that could attract visitors to Fort Pierce.
After the discussion, Commissioner Broderick moved to approve item B, seconded and the roll call vote was unanimous in favor.
The sponsorship approval included the board’s proposed requirement that the festival provide a post-event report documenting how the sponsorship funds were spent and how the event met the cultural/educational goals the board outlined.
The commission record shows the board will continue work with legal staff to clarify whether Arts in Public Places funds can be used for festivals or must be reserved for visual public art; commissioners indicated interest in ensuring the fund is used before it would lapse to the general fund.
Pouliot and other board members also noted ongoing murals and visual art projects in the pipeline that the board believes are appropriate uses of the fund.
