NORTHEAST TALLAHASSEE, FL — Leon County commissioners will vote Tuesday on whether to take control of cultural grant distribution away from the Council on Culture & Arts — known as COCA — a private nonprofit currently responsible for awarding grants to dozens of local arts organizations.
The proposed change would move that process under Leon County's Division of Tourism.
WATCH FULL REPORT BELOW:
Arts organizations that rely on COCA's grant funding say that the potential shift is alarming.
Lauren Hernandez, CEO of Tallahassee Ballet, said her organization's future could be at stake.
"It's very concerning, and, you know, we've been around for over 53 years, and without that funding, I don't know how much longer we would be able to sustain without having to potentially look into going into reserves or how that would look moving forward," Hernandez said.
President and CEO of 621 Gallery Josh Johnson echoed those concerns.
“This proposal for us is scary because anything that mitigates the way that arts programs and arts organizations are funded is scary, especially when you're talking about something like COCA that has a 40-year relationship with the organizations in this area," Johnson said.
The discussion began in September when commissioners raised concerns about $2 million in COCA's reserve, questioning whether the county could manage grants in-house.
County staff says the move would save more than $200,000, allow direct oversight, and bring Leon County in line with how other Florida counties manage arts funding.
COCA Executive Director Kathleen Spehar said the staff recommendation came as a surprise.
"We knew that there would be some discussion about this, so we thought there might be a workshop or something along that line. But we did not have anything like that," Spehar said.
As far as the reserve, Spehar says the agency's true reserve is around $900,000 and that the remaining money in their account is already committed to grants and programs.
Spehar warns that the county's proposal would result in a complete loss of COCA’s county funding and arts programming, with a projected 33% cut to arts grants by 2028.
"It's a mighty amount of money that's going to go over to, and it would completely change the nature of our organization," Spehar said.
Hernandez raised concerns about what a shift in oversight could mean for how funding decisions are made.
"COCA funding process has always been backed by artists, professionals, and when you take that away and potentially give it towards elected officials or those that may not have the arts' best foot forward, that could potentially sway things either way,” Hernandez said.
Johnson is urging the community to make their voices heard at the commission meeting on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.
"We are urging on behalf of COCA and arts organizations and art facilitators and artisans to contact your commissioners, to contact your local representatives, and tell them to vote the way that we would like this vote to go," Johnson said.
Spehar said COCA is optimistic that commissioners will instead choose to extend their partnership with the organization for another year.
She said that would allow time for open discussion about the county's concerns and proposed changes.
“Let's go into a workshop or let's have a community conversation about it and look at what the county's concerns are, and then move forward with the plan from there, and this ask for us with option two on this agenda item 13 will allow us to do that.” Spehar said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Want to see more local news? Visit the WTXL ABC 27 Website.
Stay in touch with us anywhere, anytime.
