The Pinellas County Board of Commissioners in Clearwater, Fla. decided on Thursday to stop financially supporting Creative Pinellas, an organization that funds local artists.
Commissioners questioned how the organization was using its funds to enhance tourism with the money it gets from the Tourist Development Tax funding.
In an expressive protest, a woman covered her mouth with tape bearing the phrase “visitors don’t vote,” as the arts community voiced concerns. The county commission debated the role of Creative Pinellas in promoting tourism while evaluating the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
“We will need to vacate our offices and galleries by the fiscal year’s end if funding isn’t secured,” stated Creative Pinellas CEO Margaret Murray.
Creative Pinellas provides grants to artists, many of whom have shared how these grants were pivotal in starting their careers, creating the murals throughout Pinellas County, and enriching the local cultural landscape. The organization also supports the educational sector, offering scholarships for student summer camps and more.
“Creative Pinellas has really changed my family’s lives,” said one local artist who received a grant from Creative Pinellas.
But commissioners questioned how the organization supports tourism.
“I’m unsure whether they would support artists directly. Although many spoke about the life-changing impact of these grants, that isn’t tourism,” mentioned Commission Chair Brian Scott.
There is a proposal to allocate funds to an arts grant initiative through Visit St. Pete Clearwater, boosting the investment in arts and cultural tourism programs to $500,000.
“Respectfully, Visit St. Pete Clearwater does not understand best practices for curating funding or administrative arts programming,” said another local artist. “What Creative Pinellas is doing directly, and indirectly, is building and sustaining a thriving art culture. It’s not one-off projects, it’s not tourist art, it’s a community and a culture.”
Commissioner Chris Latvala said Visit St. Pete Clearwater does a “pretty good job” of advising the commission on which museums to give millions of dollars in bed taxes to every year.
“This is tough to some, but at the end of the day, this is not life or death. Art in schools will still be there; the sun will still shine. People will still come and go to art galleries and museums. We will still thrive as a county,” Latvala said.
Creative Pinellas said they already work with Visit St. Pete Clearwater and have tourism programs in place. One artist who spoke at the meeting shared how she is one of two artists with murals at St. Pete Clearwater International Airport and was part of a Creative Pinellas program that put artwork inside hotels.
The CEO asked commissioners for one more year of funding to have conversations and implement changes.
“Please let us address your concerns. Being blindsided like this gave us very little opportunity,” Murray said. “I believe we deserve a chance to work together.”
Some commissioners agreed this process needed more vetting.
Commissioner Dave Eggers mentioned how it seemed like a knee-jerk reaction to DOGE coming in and telling commissioners “how to run our lives down here, but this is our community.”
The final vote on the budget will come after the public hearing on Sept. 18. It’s unclear if any amendments can be made to this portion of the budget.
