The Flagler County Cultural Council, the volunteer organization known as FC3 and designated local arts agency, marked its third year since that designation at its annual meeting Wednesday evening at the Palm Coast Community Center by featuring grant recipients, selecting winners of a high school photo contest and installing a new slate of officers. The fledgling council is still finding its footing, its “pillars” lifting more aspirations than achievements for now.
The organization got a huge credibility boost last year when Palm Coast government elected to hand over the selection process of its annual cultural arts grants to FC3, a laborious process that freed city staff of untold hours of work, which FC3’s unpaid and cheery board members now carry out.
Without that grant, the organization would not have had much else to show for its three years. It is now working on getting the selection responsibility for a portion of local tourism grants as well. (FC3 operates under the administrative umbrella of the county’s tourism office.) But in both cases, those are existing pots of local money that merely shift part of their administration, not new money FC3 is introducing into the community, or new money that creates new events.
There’s been struggles. When the city’s granting round earlier this year did not include the Palm Coast Historical Society, members of the City Council, Mayor Mike Norris especially, were displeased–the mayor does not like FC3 and doesn’t want the city to be associated with it–but the relationship survived and its accountability increased: it is now required to operate in the sunshine, meaning that most of its operations are in the public eye.
In the coming round, the society was included among grant recipients. It got recommended for $2,000 for its annual Founders Day celebration.
FC3 only recommends grants to the council, which retains the right to reject a recommendation or award a grant that was denied a recommendation.
“These organizations have a lot to offer our community, individually, so we’re working really hard on increasing funding for them,” said Nancy Crouch, who chaired the FC3 board until last night. Terms are limited to two years. She was replaced by Danielle Anderson, the multi-hatted dynamo who publishes Flagler News Weekly, among other obligations, though Crouch remains on the board. “They went from getting $1,000 a year to some getting 12 or $15,000 a year. That is significant, and that takes a lot of time to maneuver and get the approvals.”
Many of next year’s grant recipients were in attendance and addressed the audience of a few dozen people. The city made $100,000 available. FC3 ranked, selected and recommended the local cultural organizations for grants ranging
David Ayres, president of Flagler Broadcasting, is also vice president of the Palm Coast Song Festival, a small operation that started a few years ago and that has grown into a four-day event. “Every year it just gets better and bigger,” he told the audience, representing one of the organizations receiving a grant next year ($12,000 for the festival). “There’s a big following, and people appreciate when you hear the person who wrote the song to tell the story of where they were and what it means, and how they capture that into it.”
The Flagler Auditorium’s executive director, Amelia Fulmer, said last year the venue now known as the Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center sold 23,400 seats. “You may think, well, you’re swimming in dough if you sold that many tickets,” Fulmer said. Her organization got recommended for a $12,000 grant. “But the way our programming works is, we have shows that we know will sell out, and we have shows that we’re lucky if we sell only a few tickets.” Ballet and classical music gigs, for instance, don’t exactly pack the place, but it’s still part of the mission to stage them locally. No one else will.
And of course there’s City Repertory Theatre, “the little engine that could,” as its co-founder (with Diane Ellertsen) and director of many productions told the audience. The theater at City Market Place is starting its 15th year. “For instance, right now we are doing a play called ‘Avenue Q,’” he said. There are people here who have seen it and they’re laughing. It’s outrageous. It’s Sesame Street on steroids. But that’s the kind of thing we try to bring toPalm Coast and Flagler County that is different, engaging, scandalous, even. Sometimes I’ll tell our actors, if that audience didn’t walk out of here pissed off, we’ve done something wrong, because that’s what art, as you all know, should be doing: exploring, discovering, bringing new and exciting ideas, things we could hate, things we could love.” CRT got an $11,200 grant.
Other recipients whose representatives addressed the audience included the Flagler Education Foundation, recipient of a $10,000 grant for the Josh Crews Writing Project (which ends with an annual book collecting scores of students’ writings in many forms), the African American Cultural Society ($12,000), which organizes a number of events through the years, the Hispanic American Cultural Society ($8,520), the Community Chorus of Palm Coast ($10,000)
Crouch spoke of FC3’s “pillars,” such as advocacy, scholarships for local students, marketing the local art scene, fostering collaboration between the cultural agencies, developing new events, and using FC3’s designation as a local arts agency to pull down substantial grants–the one pillar the organization is hoping to develop now that it has a grant writer. For now, much of that remains more in the goals column than in the achievement column.
Palm Coast City Council member Theresa Pontieri, who represents the city on the FC3 board and was in attendance, was herself mildly critical of the organization’s previous granting round’s methods when she addressed it at a council meeting last June, but has kept hopeful and supportive sights set on it.
“They are still a baby organization,” she said this morning. “In the business world, it takes at least three years for a company to truly take off. We need to give them time to develop and thrive.” She spoke of the importance of the arts and culture as part of the city’s and her “hyper-focus” on economic development, from arts events to festivals to galleries. “Ultimately, cultural arts serve as a catalyst for economic vitality by creating a vibrant, dynamic environment that benefits both residents and visitors.”
That said, she added, “I’ll be watching the progress of their strategic action plan to ensure our community is seeing deliverables.”
Aside from Anderson taking over the board’s chair, Denise Garcia was elected voice chair and Julia Truillo will continue as treasurer. Anderson will continue as secretary as well, unusual as that may be.
Everyone in the audience got to cast votes for the Flagler Palm Coast High School annual photo contest, which usually takes place at Creekside Music and Arts Festival. Creekside was scheduled for this weekend. It was postponed to February 7 and 8 because of weather. So the judging of the arts contest took place last night, with the People’s Choice Award to be held out until Creekside.
The winners, in order from first place to fifth, all of them students at FPC, are Isabella Cuccinello, Jordyn Carnelli, Brayden Roe, Annabelle Murray, and Abigail Minder.
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