TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- The council on culture and arts is hosting a community tonight at 5:00 at the Leon County Library. Dr. Antonio Cuyler will be speaking on issues in the Capital City around diversity, equity, funding and access to the local art and culture community. He is a Florida State professor who specializes in equity and inclusion in the arts.
The purpose of tonight's discussion is to examine funding for culturally specific organizations in Tallahassee. Administers at COCA took a survey seeking opinion on whether people in the community think the city and county provide equal funding for all art organizations.
One issue is finding a balance between funding towards big and smaller organizations in the Capital City. Dr. Audra Pittman, the Executive Director for COCA says, "In our grant program, we do make sure they are serving different audiences. That we're serving audiences not only with ticketed programs, but free programs, so that it's open to all audience members. We're also looking for collaboration. A lot of times our bigger organizations are able to host our smaller organizations because they have different types of resources."
Smaller organizations are encouraged to make use of the many services. especially the free ones, COCA offers to help build and grow their programming and organizations. Tonight's discussion is a starting point to make sure COCA is addressing the needs of the community and will allow them to study and improve their grant programs.
