‘What a miracle.’ Miami Beach voters approve $159 million investment in arts and culture

Miami Beach’s arts and culture institutions won big this election season.

On Tuesday, Miami Beach residents voted to green-light $159 million in bonds to fund several local cultural institutions’ repairs, renovations and projects along with the reconstruction of the dilapidated Byron Carlyle Theater. The referendum — which benefits organizations like the Holocaust Memorial, Miami Beach Botanical Garden and The Fillmore — was approved with about 65 percent of the votes.

“That is a resounding ‘yes,’” said Silvia Karman Cubiñá, The Bass Museum executive director. “It wasn’t a sort of, ‘We kind of like the idea, so let’s vote.’ It was a testament to the type of city that we’re working and living in.”

The approval was a victory for both the Miami Beach institutions who spearheaded the “Yes 2 Arts” campaign and Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, who said the referendum was the “most important thing on the ballot.”

City officials have been eager to shake the beach’s rowdy party reputation by promoting itself as an arts and culture destination home to a symphony, a ballet and the annual Art Basel Miami Beach fair. For years, officials have debated how to manage South Beach’s party atmosphere while the city has been criticized for showing hostility toward Black tourists.

Voters’ approval shows that Miami Beach residents want to prioritize investments in arts and culture, Gelber said.

“I’ve always felt like we sell ourselves short by just being a party destination. I don’t think that’s really who we need to be,” Gelber said. “We are always going to have beautiful beaches and great weather, but when we add to that these cultural amenities, we’re creating a special destination that can really choose who it wants to be.”

The investment will come at a cost to Miami Beach taxpayers, though the exact amount is not yet confirmed. In July, when the City Commission approved the referendum to appear on Tuesday’s ballot, city spokesperson Melissa Berthier said the estimated cost per $100,000 of taxable value would be $21 annually.

The referendum approval came just four years after residents approved $439 million in bonds for projects related to public safety, infrastructure, beaches and parks.

Maria Hernandez, the Miami Beach general obligations bond program director, said residents will see a change to their taxes in October or November 2023. Until then, the city has already begun meeting with the over a dozen institutions and organizations who will soon get a piece of the $159 million pie in April, she said.

The biggest share — $30,570,000 — will go toward the demolition, reconstruction and reopening of the Byron Carlyle Theater, which closed in 2019. The current facility, which was built in the ‘60s, often floods and is too damaged to fix, Hernandez said.

“This is a project that the residents of North Beach have been wanting for a long time,” Hernandez said.

The money each group and project will receive was divvied up months ago. The Bass, an art museum in Collins Park, plans to use its $20,100,000 to build a new wing and retrofit its cafe area into a multi-purpose, high-tech space to host events and gatherings, Cubiñá said.

The New World Symphony, based out of the New World Center, will receive $5,700,000 to take care of much-needed repairs and upgrades, including fire alarm panels, flood barriers and elevators. The art bonds will help organizations like New World square away infrastructure issues to focus its other funding on arts programming, said symphony president Howard Herring.

Miami City Ballet, which will get $16 million, will set aside $4 million for its workforce housing project. The ballet needs to fix its loading dock, renovate its bathrooms and upgrade its studios and theater with new lighting rigs, cameras and projectors, said MCB chief operating officer John Shumaker.

Shumaker, who has been with the ballet for six years, spent the better part of the last four months organizing fellow Miami Beach cultural institutions and campaigning heavily for the referendum to pass. After the 2018 infrastructure bond approval, Shumaker said the city’s arts and cultural groups knew the importance of securing funding to keep their facilities up-to-date and better serve their missions.

When he woke up Wednesday morning, Shumaker recalled receiving a text from MCB artistic director Lourdes Lopez: “What a miracle.” Despite unprecedented inflation, taxpayers were asked to increase their own taxes to fund the arts, and they said yes, Shumaker said.

“They heard our call, they voted as such and they trusted in us,” he said. “Now it’s our turn to pay it back to them.”

This story was produced with financial support from The Pérez Family Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.