Arts Energize 305 Strategic Plan
A New Vision for Greater Cultural Equity in Miami-Dade County
An important social, economic and tourism driver for Miami-Dade County, the arts and cultural sector celebrates and upholds Miami-Dade County’s diversity, heritages, and traditions. The economic impact of the arts in Miami-Dade County is $2.1 billion and the arts generate 32,000 local jobs. Miami-Dade County supports our diverse and equitable cultural ecosystem in innovative ways so that our residents and visitors can enjoy affordable access to excellent cultural activities.
On December 5, 2023, the New York Times declared: “Miami Has Matured into a Cultural Capital.” “Miami has established itself as part of the constellation of cities worldwide known for their arts and culture. Paris, London and New York - also home to major art fairs - had a head start getting into this elite club, with their storied museums and centuries-long commitment to arts. Other cities that started hosting art fairs more recently, including Hong Kong and Seoul, are newer arrivals to the party. But no one has made an entrance quite as striking as Miami's.”
At this critical moment, developing a strategic plan is a necessary next step to ensure the ongoing institutional growth of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and the cultural community it serves. The Cultural Affairs Council, reinvigorated by the organization’s steady progress during an unprecedented leadership transition, has reaffirmed its commitment to the Department of Cultural Affairs’ mission. To build on this momentum and to focus the Department and Council’s renewed energies, the Department of Cultural Affairs must now prepare to develop a deliberate and carefully structured strategic plan.
According to the National Endowment for the Arts, “the ability to build memories around a shared experience (e.g., in the arts) is arguably a precondition for community. The collective memory of a place is, after all, one means by which residents relate to each other, and to their common heritage. But it also can be the source for change or renewal, by providing them the basis for negotiating a new destiny.”
The future of arts and culture in Miami-Dade County
The last 40 years has been focused on building a world-class cultural life from the ground up in one generation, therefore, the logical next step must be centering equity as we continue to build and strengthen our arts community. We must ask “who is not at the table? Who is left out? Which cultural groups, artists and neighborhoods are not being served? And, finally, how do we teach the necessary skills to those artists and organizations and connect them with the resources they need?”
Recognizing that the arts are a fundamental way to unite humanity, establish community and ignite creativity, a primary focus must be to support our diverse cultural ecosystem in innovative ways so that our residents and visitors can enjoy affordable and equitable access to excellent cultural activities, with particular emphasis on under-resourced, under-privileged and underserved communities.
The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs is launching a new strategic plan: Arts Energize 305, A New Vision for Greater Cultural Equity in Miami-Dade County. The Arts Energize 305 plan centers equity at all levels of the work of Department and Miami-Dade’s cultural organizations and artists. Continuing to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and access, Arts Energize 305 focuses on the economic and social impact of arts while developing interdepartmental partnerships, encouraging cross-sector collaborations and ensuring the arts are innovatively serving underserved populations and under-resourced neighborhoods, with an emphasis on preserving cultural heritages and traditions. Arts Energize 305 is a blueprint to a more equitable cultural ecosystem to sustain artists and cultural institutions so that our residents and visitors can enjoy affordable access to excellent cultural activities.