Polk Arts and Cultural Alliance (PACA) is the Local Arts Agency for Polk County. As such, PACA “advocates for all the Cultural Arts Organizations in Polk County and promotes the impact of the Cultural Arts Sector as integral to the quality-of-life in our county.” The organization actively represents Polk County’s arts and cultural interests to agencies, governments, chambers of commerce, and the business community on a national, state, and local level. They allocate funding and provide their members with marketing, professional development, advocacy, and education. Executive Director Daryl Ward has been with the organization for a year and a half. His philosophy? “I don’t believe a person’s access to arts and cultural experiences should be dictated by their zip code.”
Ward’s family has been in Florida for generations. They hailed from the Panhandle and made a living as oyster fishermen. Ward has lived in Polk County for over 50 years. He taught English at Kathleen High School in Lakeland before moving to Mulberry High School, his alma mater, where he taught for 15 years. After receiving his master’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, Ward became a middle school dean of students. Next, he worked as the assistant principal at Harrison School for the Arts for eight years and was the principal for seven years. “It gave me some unique insight. I had a non-arts education background teaching English, and then I got to see the arts background as well when I was at Harrison,” said Ward. “One of the things that uniquely equipped me for my current job was that Harrison was one of the few countywide schools. I learned to appreciate early the relationships with different entities countywide.”
In late 2019, Ward took a position at Southeastern University. Following his time at SEU, Ward was contacted about the executive director slot at the then Polk Arts Alliance, now Polk Arts and Cultural Alliance (PACA). “It was a good opportunity to stay in touch with the arts and cultural community,” he said.
One of his first acts as executive director was to change the name from Polk Arts Alliance to Polk Arts and Cultural Alliance. He did this to include cultural members like history centers and children’s museums.
Arts Budget Cut
This summer, Ward has advocated heavily for the local arts and cultural scene after an unexpected slash of the state budget.
On June 12, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed $32 million in arts funding from the legislature-approved 2024-25 budget. In defense of his decision, DeSantis noted the Tampa and Orlando Fringe Festivals, which he called a “sexual festival.” Grants allocated to these festivals made up less than 1% of the total state arts budget.
This veto deleted all funding for the three categories of arts and culture grants: Cultural and Museum, Culture Builds Florida, and Cultural Endowments. This affected more than 600 recipients across the state. “This is devastating for arts organizations,” said Ward. “The cuts are drastic enough, but it is unprecedented for all the funding to be cut.”
Arts organizations can get state funding in one of two ways. The first is through direct legislative action, which happened earlier this year when the Polk Museum of Art received $500K for its expansion project. Those legislative actions are relatively rare, says Ward. The second is through a rigorous grant process.
Organizations often apply for grants more than a year out from their budget. These local arts and cultural organizations knew they were approved, knew of the legislative cuts before they hit the governor’s desk, and didn’t find out about the vetoes until a month before the fiscal year, making it difficult to make up the lost funds.
David Price, from Bok Tower Gardens noted that, “for us this is a blow to our budget as these grants fund important programs. We will need to trim from other programs and eliminate other initiatives to support the overall budget.”
DeSantis’s veto meant a shortfall of $449K in arts funding for Polk County. “It’s going to impact programming. There’s the chance with some of your smaller organizations that it could impact personnel,” said Ward. “Will it cause any to close their doors? I think that’s doubtful.”
“I think Governor DeSantis probably unintentionally angered some of his supporters who may not support a Fringe Festival, but they support a children’s museum,” Ward said. “I don’t think that was his intent. I think there will be some systemic changes, whether to the grants process or how it all works moving forward, so as not to have an organization that thought they were eligible to get money to suddenly get nothing.”
Despite the unexpected budget cuts, there is hope for our local arts and cultural organizations. Local philanthropists through the GiveWell Community Foundation worked with the Polk Arts & Cultural Alliance to offer financial assistance due to this year’s budget shortfall. The donors combined their gifts to provide $200,000 to seven local arts and cultural organizations. “While this certainly doesn’t replace the entire amount Polk grant recipients would have received in the budget, it’s wonderful to see local supporters step in to help,” said Ward. “The donors were very wellinformed and intentional with their gifts in an effort to mitigate financial losses to the degree possible.”
Kerry Falwell, CEO of the Florida Children’s Museum, notes how this donation will have a significant impact on the community. “I am humbled and overjoyed by the community response to the loss of state arts funding. This gift is so important to thousands of children in Central Florida,” she said.
“Polk County has such strong support for arts and culture. This generous donation further solidifies our community as one that benefits from such gracious and impactful philanthropy,” added Ward.
Polk Arts & Culture Hall of Fame Gala
In lighter news, the Polk Arts and Culture Hall of Fame Gala, honoring local contributors to art and culture, is coming up this fall. The Polk County Arts Hall of Fame was created in 2014 to honor lifetime achievements in the arts and cultural realm for Polk County natives. Previously, Polk Arts Alliance (PAA) would induct people in convenient settings. They inducted world-renowned concert pianist Robert MacDonald at a concert at Florida Southern College, for example, and former PAA Executive Director Meri Mass at her retirement.
“I wanted to elevate the event to celebrate arts and cultural people the same way we celebrate other people in our county,” said Ward. And so the Polk Arts and Culture Hall of Fame Gala was born. The inaugural gala took place last year at Bonnet Springs Park, with over 250 people in attendance and six people inducted into the Arts Hall of Fame. Another change Ward made was in the nomination process, which he moved toward, though not entirely, a democratic process. Nominations are open to the public along with the criteria PACA seeks in inductees. Ward then culls that list for those who don’t meet the requirements before sending it to a selection committee of PACA board members, community members, and living Hall of Fame members. Those rankings are tallied and sent finally to PACA’s Hall of Fame sub-committee. “While we want public input, another one of the goals is to make the Hall of Fame representative of all of Polk County,” said Ward, who noted they are seeking gender, ethnic, geographic, and artistic diversity in the process. “I don’t want anybody to be in there who isn’t worthy of the recognition because of their qualifications. But if they’re all worthy, let’s ensure this represents all of Polk County.”
In addition to honoring lifetime achievement, PACA bestows Arts & Culture Awards, including Arts/Cultural Organization of the Year, Arts/Cultural Philanthropist of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Arts/Cultural Educator of the Year, and the Rising Star Award.
This year, the Polk Arts and Culture Hall of Fame Gala will be held on October 15 at Nora Mayo Hall in Winter Haven, where five people will be inducted. Tickets for the gala go on sale in August.
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