The Division of Arts and Culture advances, supports, and promotes arts and culture to strengthen the economy and quality of life for all Floridians. Its primary function is to manage the Department of State's cultural grants programs. It also manages various exhibition, education, and arts recognition programs. The Division of Arts and Culture serves as Florida's designated state arts agency and, as such, receives federal arts funding.

In addition to administering cultural grant programs, the division promotes cultural activity by providing programs, resources, services, and technical assistance to its constituent cultural organizations and individual artists. It manages the Capitol Complex Exhibition Program, which provides a venue for Florida artists to exhibit their work at Capitol sites and maintains the Department of State Art Collection. Other division services include arts recognition programs such as the Artists Hall of Fame program, Poetry Out Loud, the Florida Poet Laureate program, the Florida Folklife Program, and the promulgation of statutorily required rules for the Art in State Buildings program selection process, which places works of art in state buildings.

Advisory groups help the division carry out its grant distribution responsibilities. The Florida Council on Arts and Culture, a 15-member advisory board appointed by the Governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, provides advice on the creation of new grant programs and oversees existing programs. Over 30 grant review panels organized by discipline and funding levels are appointed by the Secretary of State and are made up of artists, arts-related and museum professionals, and community cultural leaders, who apply established criteria to evaluate requests for funds. The review panels make funding recommendations to the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, which in turn advises the Secretary of State regarding approval. Subsequent to the Secretary's approval, grant recommendations are submitted to the Legislature for funding consideration as part of the department's legislative budget request.

A primary division activity is to provide matching grants to non-profit cultural organizations and individual artists. There are several different grant programs offered by the division, including those that support an organization's specific cultural project, and other grants that provide acquisition and construction funding for cultural facilities or matching-funds to establish endowments for non-profit cultural organizations. In Fiscal Year 2020-21, the division awarded 679 grants that directly served an estimated 34 million people.

In addition to providing cultural grants, the Division of Arts & Culture supports activities that affect the entire state, including webinars, workshops, professional development for artists, and conducting research related to the nonprofit arts and culture industry’s impact on the economy.

As shown below, grant funds available for the division to distribute for art and cultural activities vary by fiscal year. 

Grant Award Amounts by Fiscal Year
Fiscal Year	Amount (in Millions)
2017-18	$28.0
2018-19	$6.2
2019-20	$24.0
2020-21	$17.4
2021-22	$30.7
2022-23	$82.2
Source:  Department of State.

The Florida Legislature appropriates funds within the General Revenue Fund. The National Endowment for the Arts awards federal funding annually for the state arts program which is deposited into the Federal Grants Trust Fund. 

Office of International Affairs. The Division recently became the home of the Department of State’s newly revitalized Office of International Affairs, which collaborates with the Department of Economic Opportunity and Enterprise Florida to encourage and coordinate joint international undertakings. In June 2022, the Office of International Affairs hosted a day-long informational summit for Florida’s consular corps, “Connected in Business, United in Culture,” attended by more than 100 consular officers.

Cultural Events. The Florida Folklife Program, which documents, presents and preserves Florida culture, recently joined the Division of Arts and Culture. The division also oversaw the completion of a project to place a marble statue of Mary McLeod Bethune in National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.

Other Reports
Annual Report 2020-2021, Division of Arts & Culture
Arts and Economic Activity Prosperity 5 Report, Americans for the Arts, 2017

Websites of Interest
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
National Endowment for the Arts, Partnership Agreements

Performance Measures

Performance measures and standards for the department may be found in its Long Range Program Plan.

Chapters 15 and 265 and s. 255.043, Florida Statutes

Grants information: DACgrants@dos.myflorida.com
All other inquiries: DACinfo@dos.myflorida.com
850-245-6470
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