By Darius Daughtry
When Broward County decides on arts funding, the question shouldn’t be simply, “What can we afford?”
We should also ask: What does it cost our community when we stop investing?
I ask that question as a poet, playwright, educator, and founder of the Art Prevails Project. I have spent years working with young people and artists across Broward County, and I have seen what public and private investment in the arts can achieve.
I have watched a young person discover their voice through poetry. I have seen students gain confidence onstage. I have watched emerging artists hone their craft because someone gave them a platform and an opportunity.
Those experiences are why I have a hard time accepting that arts funding is somehow separate from the other investments we make in a healthy community.
Arts funding pays people.
It employs teaching artists, performers, directors, designers, technicians, writers, photographers, and other creative professionals. It helps organizations rent space, produce performances, offer educational programs, and purchase goods and services from local businesses.
Arts funding also creates access.
It helps organizations offer free and affordable programming, so participation isn’t limited to families who can afford private lessons or expensive tickets. It brings artists into classrooms and neighborhoods and provides stages for emerging talent.
When funding is reduced, those organizations face difficult choices: serve fewer students, hire fewer artists, eliminate programs, raise ticket prices, or produce less work.
For smaller community-based organizations, there may be no reserve fund or major corporate donor to fill the gap.
That is why public investment matters.
Ticket sales alone cannot sustain programming intentionally designed to remain accessible. Corporate sponsorships, foundation grants, and individual donations are critical but can fluctuate year to year. Public funding is another piece of the ecosystem that enables cultural organizations to plan, employ people, and consistently serve communities.
Broward County already recognizes that relationship. Its Cultural Division supports local artists and cultural organizations through grant programs that strengthen Broward’s creative community.
The question now is whether we continue to consider that cultural infrastructure worth protecting.
We rarely question whether investments in parks, libraries, and other public amenities improve quality of life. Arts and culture deserve to be evaluated through the same lens.
They make communities more interesting places to live. They provide educational experiences for young people. They create gathering places. They preserve history. They employ people. And they contribute to a region’s identity, which markets the region to residents, visitors, and businesses as a dynamic place to live.
This is especially important in a county as diverse as Broward.
Our cultural organizations help tell the stories of the people who live here. Community-based organizations often reach audiences and artists whose work may not always find a home in larger institutions.
For Black communities, those spaces hold particular importance. Black artists have used poetry, music, theater, dance, literature, and visual art to preserve history, challenge injustice, and document everyday life for generations.
Today’s artists continue that work.
If we want Broward to remain a place where artists can build careers and where young people can discover their creativity, opportunity must match talent.
Opportunity requires investment.
That doesn’t mean arts organizations should receive public funding without accountability. We should demonstrate who we serve, how funding is used, and what communities receive in return.
But accountability should lead to better investment decisions, not to the assumption that arts funding is expendable whenever budgets are tight.
When cultural funding comes before the County Commission, residents and policymakers should ask targeted questions.
How many people are served? How many artists are employed? Are programs reaching young people? Are organizations bringing programs to different parts of the county? Are public dollars helping make cultural experiences accessible?
And if funding is reduced, we should be equally specific about the consequences: Which programs shrink? Which jobs disappear? Which neighborhoods lose programs? Which young people lose access to them?
At Art Prevails Project, we address these questions in practical ways every day. Our year-round work includes arts education, literary programming, live performance, and artist development. On October 10, we will present To the Nines at MAD Arts Museum in Dania Beach, a celebration of poetry, music, theater, fashion, and visual art, with proceeds benefiting our work.
But no single fundraiser, donor, or organization can sustain Broward’s cultural ecosystem alone. Government, philanthropy, corporations, businesses, and residents all play a role.
As Broward continues to grow, we should think carefully about the community we are building, not only the buildings going up or the infrastructure being constructed, but also the opportunities available to the people who live here.
We should want a Broward where artists can build careers, cultural organizations can grow, and a child’s ZIP code or family income does not determine whether they have access to the arts.
That requires treating arts funding as what it is:
Not an extra, but an investment in Broward’s people, economy, identity, and future
