Florida Performing Arts Overview

Arts and cultural production added 3 percent, or $51 billion, to the Florida economy in 2023 and employed 307,615 workers who earned $24 billion in wages and benefits, according to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA Florida profile).

Those figures come from the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, which the NEA Office of Research and Analysis produces jointly with the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Commerce Department (NEA). The account measures arts and cultural production as a whole, and no separate performing arts total appears on the NEA's Florida page.

Audience numbers are closer to the stage. In the 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, conducted with the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 31 percent of Florida adults attended live music, theater or dance performances, while more than 16 percent attended art exhibits (NEA). Over the last five years the NEA distributed $25,262,661 in federal funding in Florida, directly or through state and regional partners.

One naming detail trips up searches: the NEA's state contact block still lists the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs at the R.A. Gray Building, 500 South Bronough Street, Tallahassee (NEA), with the phone 850/245-6470, while the Department of State's grant pages use the name Division of Arts and Culture (Florida Department of State) and list 850.245.6470 as the main line (General Program Support).

The Straz Center in Tampa, the Arsht in Miami and the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach are Florida performing arts centers, and Asolo Repertory Theatre presents up to 10 productions each season in Sarasota (Asolo Rep).

Each venue's own website is the source for its row in the table below; the Tampa center's full name is the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts (Straz Center).

The Straz sits on a nine-acre site along the Tampa Riverwalk and lists its five theaters as Morsani Hall (2,610 seats), Ferguson Hall (1,042), the Jaeb Theater (312), the TECO Theater (250) and the Shimberg Playhouse (130), plus an outdoor Riverwalk Stage (Straz Center). Its Patel Conservatory, added in 2004, brought 45,000 square feet for arts education, and the center says it has welcomed nearly 16 million guests since 1987.

The Kravis Center lists Ballet Palm Beach, Miami City Ballet, Palm Beach Opera and Palm Beach Symphony as visiting presenters, and notes paid self-parking and valet parking near downtown West Palm Beach with access from I-95 and the Turnpike (Kravis Center). Miami City Ballet is named both among the Arsht's resident companies (Arsht) and among the Kravis Center's visiting presenters. Asolo Rep presents contemporary works, classics and musical theatre, and the company cites its affiliation with the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training (Asolo Rep).

The Florida Division of Arts and Culture funds performing arts groups mainly through General Program Support grants, which pay for an organization's general program activities rather than one project, in disciplines that include dance, music, presenter and theatre (Division of Arts and Culture).

General Program Support comes in four types: discipline-based support, Local Arts Agency support for agencies designated in at least one Florida county, State Service Organization support for nonprofits serving at least 40 Florida counties, and Arts in Education support (General Program Support). An applicant must be a public entity or a Florida nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation, have at least one year of completed arts and cultural programming, hold an active registration with the Division of Corporations, be a registered vendor with the Department of Financial Services and have a UEI number. These state grants also serve as the required match for the NEA State Partnership Award, so the Division treats them as NEA subawards bound by federal rules in 2 CFR 200.

Specific Cultural Project grants fund a single project, program, exhibition or series within a July 1 to June 30 grant period (Specific Cultural Projects). Unlike General Program Support, individuals may apply in three categories: Artist Project, Artist Performances on Tour and Teaching Artist. Artist Performances on Tour funds performing artists touring in Florida, and the touring activities include both a performance and an educational component.

The Florida Cultural Endowment Program pairs a Cultural Sponsoring Organization designation with a $240,000 State Matching Share, and an organization must hold the designation before it can receive the match (Cultural Endowment). Cultural Facilities is the fourth Florida grant program the Division names (Division grants).

For 2026-2027 the Division lists $20,000,000 in awards, all of it General Program Support, for 187 of 563 eligible applications that together requested $51,894,865 (Grant Awards and Recommendations).

The Division's table lists 515 of 515 eligible Florida General Program Support applications funded in 2021-2022, 556 of 556 in 2022-2023 and 577 of 577 in 2023-2024, then 208 of 668 in 2025-2026 and 187 of 563 in 2026-2027 (Division of Arts and Culture). In 2026-2027 Specific Cultural Projects, Cultural Facilities and Cultural Endowment each show $0 awarded, against eligible requests of $3,058,968, $12,678,515 and $4,800,000. The Division's table has no 2024-2025 row.

The Division's own 2025-2026 figures conflict, and the page does not say which is correct: the program rows show $19,825,797 for General Program Support, $385,500 for 16 Specific Cultural Projects and $0 for Cultural Facilities and Cultural Endowment, while the totals line for the same year prints $18,711,297 (Grant Awards and Recommendations). In 2018-2019 the Division's longer table shows General Program Support awards of $2,650,000 for 489 eligible applications that requested $41,608,781.

Florida applicants read the program guidelines and submit through the Division's online system at DOSgrants.com; panelists score eligible applications in public meetings usually held by teleconference (Application and Funding Process).

Panel results go to the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, which develops ranked lists for the Florida Secretary of State; the final lists go into the Department of State's Legislative Budget Request (Division of Arts and Culture). All funding is pending appropriation by the Florida Legislature and approval by the Governor, and the Division says funding is only final once the Governor signs the budget into law. For that reason the Division points applicants to advocacy tips during the Legislative Session.

Timing matters. The Division lists the fiscal year 2027-2028 application window as closed for General Program Support, Specific Cultural Projects and Cultural Facilities (Application and Funding Process); the next deadline is listed as TBD, and grants from the next Florida cycle cover July 1, 2028 through June 30, 2029 (General Program Support). Questions about General Program Support and Specific Cultural Projects go to the Division's main line, 850.245.6470 (Division of Arts and Culture); the Cultural Endowment contact is 850.245.6483 (Cultural Endowment).

The Florida Legislature established the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1986 for performing or practicing artists, native or adopted Floridians, who have made significant contributions to the arts in Florida (Florida Artists Hall of Fame).

The Hall of Fame Wall is on the Plaza Level of the Capitol rotunda at 400 S Monroe Street, Tallahassee, and each inductee receives a bronze sculpture, La Florida, commissioned by the Florida Council on Arts and Culture (Division of Arts and Culture). The 2025 inductees were John Anderson, Alvin Downing, Brian Kelley and Jim Morrison. The Council reviews nominations and recommends inductees to the Secretary of State, and the next nomination deadline is July 31, 2027 at 5:00 p.m.

National programs reach Florida students too. Over the last five years more than 5,766 Florida students took part in Poetry Out Loud, and the Shakespeare in American Communities program let Florida schools offer 9,665 students live professional Shakespeare performances or educational programs (NEA). The NEA also profiles Sarasota circus aerialist Dolly Jacobs, a 2015 National Heritage Fellow. Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the NEA Florida state profile, six Division of Arts and Culture grant pages including the 2012-13 to 2026-27 award tables, the Florida Artists Hall of Fame page and the about pages of the Straz, Arsht, Kravis and Asolo Rep.