Art helps everyone. Why is that hard to understand?

How is funding the recovery of the only arts-related part of the Tallahassee community even a question?

We do not have any large or prestigious museums, no collections, no accessible local or state heritage, at least not facilities comparable to any other city with a similar populace. The small museums we do have are doing very good, very important work that serves our community on less than a shoestring of a budget. We should be funding them, too.

It’s not enough, what we had before the May tornadoes which decimated so many structures, seemingly ones our city tried to avoid thinking about. We don’t have a children’s museum any longer, no public fine art museum, no conservatory or real auditorium. Our “Civic Center” is forced into multiuse, to all parties’ detriment. Our city ballet company is in a strip mall. We have no opera. There is no place (outside the airport, which is an entirely separate conversation) for the art created by our community, work which should be shared with our community at large.

Art helps everyone, literally all of us. Why is that hard to understand? Are we a community that does not care to better ourselves? Moreover, why should one family bear the costs of all the repairs to our sole arts community? The model we have now is unsustainable. Is Tallahassee really committed to mediocrity? If so, how very sad. Don’t we want to be better? And to have the buildings we live and work in be up to code and insured?

Almost every year there is a new contract signed with a new PR firm (or some equivalent) that makes grand speeches and sends mass-email surveys enticing the opinions of the public. Usually with the goals of retaining young people, building on innovation, and/or drawing in big businesses. Has it ever worked? And if so, has it ever worked beyond a single fiscal year?

The root of this relates to the humans in our community; who comes here? It’s mostly temporary students and inconsistent government workers. Does anyone else want to visit Tallahassee?

Investing in the already existing arts community, both in Railroad Square and the city at large, finding a way to support the communities of artists, craftspeople, and makers who are already doing very good work that is, to be brutally honest, regularly ignored – wouldn’t that be a wiser investment than paying for all those consultants? Wouldn’t that mean giving young people a reason to stay? Make innovation more possible, more big businesses attracted?

Why must we have only fern bars and franchises be successful? We are all exhausted with car washes and mattress stores. We have decades of evidence proving that these businesses, and the out-of-state funded “luxury” high rises, do not survive.

We also have hundreds of examples of other cities whose connection to their arts community builds on everything its populace desires. If we want Tallahassee to be better, can we please invest in its artists? Can we please make a rational choice? Or, is no one interested in the future of Tallahassee? Because that is how it feels right now.

Rachel Elspeth Gross, who lives in Tallahassee, is a fashion historian and writer and Forbes contributor.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Art helps everyone. Why is that hard to understand?