EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine February 2019 | Page 19

example, employs 12 full-time staff, six part-time workers and 30 artists a year as summer art camp teachers and for community programs on an annual budget of $2 million. More than 90% of its construction spending was done by contractors and vendors from Volusia County, while its programming attracts 80,000 people year. This is driving tourism, too. The Americans for the Arts study found that of the nonresident tourists at an event, 75% came specifically to attend and 58.4% said they would have gone elsewhere to see that same attraction, a sign of how art can drive tourism. Art also retains dollars that residents would have spent had they traveled to see the same event elsewhere, the study showed. That’s a driver of the county’s efforts to take art to the community. “I like to remind people that art is all around us. We just have to open our eyes to it,” Redd said. “It is not, nor should it be, always in stuffy, exclusive galleries. Art is to be shared, enjoyed, and debated.” An example of this is in DeLand, where the city and the Museum of Art — DeLand teamed up on an initiative to wrap the drab, gray utility boxes with vinyl reproductions of art created by local artists, helping to bring “interest to what is otherwise an unattractive part of daily living,” according to Redd. from Volusia County and other sources, Sandall must run a tight ship. “We are being left to our own to figure out financing,” he said. “We have to be confident and lean in to what we do, and we can’t take that many risks. We can’t afford for too many of our programs to fail.” A BIG CAR SHOW It’s not just the arts, but cultural events like Daytona Turkey Run, a biannual car show and swap meet at the Daytona International Speedway, that support a robust economy. It is an extension of the County’s nearly 100 year-long love of the automobile – think driving on the beach that began in the 1920’s and continued with the opening of the International Speedway in 1959. The Turkey Run draws people to the county to check out collector Cadillacs, hot rods and other old vehicles. At Thanksgiving, nearly 155,000 people participated in the four-day event, up 3% from previous year, according to Jennifer Labonte, director of marketing and public relations for the event. Turkey Run, the largest combined classic car show and swap meet in the U.S. hires more than 100 people and pulls in a regular crop of food and swap meet vendors to meet the demand. “Our Car Corral is filled with more than 1,200 cars from all generations for sale and many come just to look for a great deal or that hard to find car for sale,” Labonte said. “Then we have many families that may not necessarily be classic car fans but come just to see what all the buzz is about.” The event, which includes events for kids as well as a beer festival, is becoming so popular that traffic is becoming an organizational challenge, she said. BEYOND THE BOX Remaining relevant and maintaining financial stability requires more than traditional programming. Sandall had that in mind when he took his job in 2012. The Museum of Arts and Sciences (MOAS) was under renovation at the time, including the construction of a new Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art, which houses more than 2,600 paintings of Florida. This gave him a chance to introduce a new concept for the museum when the architects were still around so that it could generate rental income from events, lectures and performances, and offer a wider range of activities. The timing was good. In the wake of the 2008-09 recession, funding from Florida state started to decline and has dropped below $20,000, or less than 1% of the museum’s $2.9 million annual budget, according to his estimates. While funds come in Daytona Turkey Run The response? It has turned to the community, creating what he calls social programming: yoga classes, wine tastings, and a craft-and-cocktails series, plus nighttime events with food trucks, music and wine where people can come after work to hang out at the museum. This has changed the concept of the museum from just an educational facility to a focal point for the community. “We have created a second way of experiencing the museum through our events,” Sandall said. It’s paying off with a new source of funding for the museum, which employs 45 full-time and part-time staff. “People are willing to support you if they feel there is something happening,” he said. “We are seeing our attendance rise because we have a vibrant community of people coming to our events.” Attendance is on track to reach 100,000 this year, up 6.4% from 94,000 in 2017, according to MOAS. The museum is not alone. “Everybody is starting to do this, everyone is getting out there and finding innovative ways, and thinking a little bit more out of the box,” he said. And this is bleeding into the community, something that should prove beneficial for the economy. “Generally, good things happen in communities that have strong art scenes,” Sandall said. “The creative driving force is pushing boundaries, and if boundaries are getting pushed then everyone follows and that increases the quality of everything else that is going on.” Charles Newbery is a freelance journalist and writer. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, LatinFinance, The New York Times and other publications. He also writes business content for companies and ghostwrites op-eds for executives. He can be reached at [email protected]. FEBRUARY 2019 | 19 |