- December 7, 2025
The Volusia County Council is refusing to budge: Over $611,000 in previously slated grant funding for arts and culture will not be released to local organizations.
The arts community asked the council on Tuesday, Oct. 21, to reconsider its decision to withhold $611,758 in community cultural grants for 33 organizations. Councilman Danny Robins had pulled the grant awards from the council's Oct. 7 consent agenda, citing concerns over LGBTQ+ events and drag shows held at DeLand's Athens Theatre and Lake Helen's Shoestring Theatre. The events singled out by Robins were put on by Volusia Pride, a third-party organization that rented the theaters.
Both theaters withdrew their applications for grant funding in hopes the council would fund the remaining 31 organizations, which include the Ormond Beach Historical Society, the Ormond Memorial Art Museum, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Playhouse, African American Museum of the Arts, the Civic Ballet of Volusia County and the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum. With the theaters out of the picture, the grant funding allocation decreased to $571,926.
But the majority of the council said that they needed to focus on fiscal responsibility, and that funding needs such as roads and transportation is more important.
"I have some stormwater issues that need to be addressed," Robins said. "In roads, I have some bridges ... that are literally costing my local businesses and residents. It's not only time, fuel and maintenance, all that stuff, but it's costing some of these businesses a lot of money."
A motion to approve funding for the remaining 31 arts and cultural organizations failed 4-3, with only Councilmen Matt Reinhart, Jake Johansson and David Santiago voting in favor.
Numerous representatives from local arts and culture organizations spoke at Tuesday's meeting. A petition by the Volusia County Cultural Alliance for the council to restore the grant funds, which account for 0.04% of the county's $1.4 billion budget, has been signed by more than 2,300 residents, said ArtHaus Executive Director Cameron Vintson.
Vintson, who is the vice president of the VCCA and sits on the Volusia County ECHO Gallery Advisory Committee, said the organizations all worked to meet the shortened deadline for the 2025-2026 grant program when the council changed it earlier this year. Funding the arts is an investment, she said, citing the arts generate $1.99 for every $1 spent on the grant.
"We're not asking for free handouts," Vintson said. "We're using that investment to provide free and reduced programming to underserved and Volusia County residents."
ArtHaus was recommended by the Volusia County Cultural Council to have received $31,471 in funds, which Vintson said help 217 scholarships for kids; these are used for camps, child care and arts education.
The council wanted arts organizations to be more self-sustaining, and that was a direction they took seriously, said Craig Uppercue, president of VCCA.
"It is therefore deeply concerning that hosting certain community groups was used as a justification to withhold this year's already allocated fund," he said.
Volusia Pride President Ann-Marie Willacker also spoke at the meeting, saying she watched as the council "weaponized" their organization against the Volusia arts community at the Oct. 7 meeting.
"You pander to us when you wanted our votes and then you turned around and used us as pawns in your manufactured culture war," Willacker said. "Arts funding is not about giving public money to private business. Arts funding is about upholding freedom of expression, fostering creativity in our youth and investing in the economic vitality of our county through tourism, cultural growth and community identity."
The councilmen used their position to create "a chilling effect that has made other businesses and organizations given the opportunity to think twice about doing business" with Volusia Pride, said Vice President Heather McLean.
"You grilled representatives from the Athens and Shoestring Theater about their work with Volusia Pride as if it were a crime rather than a business transaction or a community event," McLean said. "And, you even insinuated that they should think about refusing to work with us, which would be a violation of a current anti-discrimination law."
None of the councilmen, including Robins, addressed the LGBTQ+ community or Pride events, as they discussed continuing to withhold the grant funding.
Could ECHO provide funding for cultural arts programs?
That's what Councilman Don Dempsey asked county staff, who explained that the county's voter-approved ECHO program was written on the ballot to cover capital projects for environmental, cultural, historical and outdoor recreation uses.
"If you want to set aside funding for a particular purpose, you're free to do so through your budgetary process," County Attorney Mike Dyer said. "You do not have to have a referendum."
Dempsey said he wanted to get the cultural grant dollars out of the general fund, but Dyer pointed out that ECHO and Volusia Forever are both part of the general fund.
"I'm not opposed to the ECHO portion of our tax dollar being used to maybe help them out, because that seems like that was the will of the voters with ECHO," Dempsey said. "But I would never want to take anything out of the general fund for the arts, because I don't think that's a government purpose, but as long as that goes in place, I think it's fair that maybe these people should have a shot of putting in for some of that money."
County Manager George Reckenwald said this year's millage has already been decided for ECHO, so they cannot change that at this point.
"You're very limited this year because you've already voted on the budget," he said.
Santiago said he led the charge on changing the cultural grant funding program, and that he thought it was wrong for the council to adopt the changes and then walk away from it all eight months later.
"I didn't give my word on the longevity of the program, but people went through the process for this year and all of us voted for the budget," Santiago said.
He would be in favor of revisiting the conversation about using ECHO funds, but for next fiscal year.
Robins asked how many organizations applying for grant dollars hosted fundraisers.
"All of them," said Tim Baylie, county director of parks and recreation. "Every year, they fundraise, try to get additional funding through other state grants and other entities."
"One of my colleagues said one or two of them didn't have any fundraising dollars come in," Robins replied. "That's why I'm asking. I'm trying to work something here, but I... That's it."
Council Chair Jeff Brower said he hates being "the bad guy," because he does love the arts.
"This whole thing is more of a philosophical, principled argument," Brower said. "Somebody said, 'We're not a charity.' And I understand where she's coming from, but a nonprofit is by definition a charitable organization that you can give money to and then take a tax deduction for it, so we are making charitable contribution decisions out of public taxpayer money, and I don't feel comfortable doing that when we have people that are flooded out, roads ... people that can't afford rent and mortgage."
