2 min read December 2023 — The arts in Palm Beach County are back in a big way. The sector was the hardest hit during the pandemic but audiences are coming back and the cultural landscape is one of the reasons people are moving to the area, said Joanna Marie Kaye, executive director of the Festival of the Arts Boca. “I think the sector will continue to grow and Palm Beach County and its residents will continue to reap the benefits,” she told Invest:.
What were the major highlights and milestones for your organization during the last year?
Our festival took place in March and it was great. Arts and culture were probably the sector of the economy that was hit hardest by the pandemic but I think we fared better than many. This year, we felt like we were back, not quite back to normal yet but we’re expecting normal numbers, pre-pandemic numbers. This year, things are looking very good.
What is the state of the arts in Palm Beach County?
The arts sector is coming back, which is good. We went from people doing shortened seasons and modified venues to pretty much back to business as usual. Audiences are still lagging a little bit behind but we do better than most because our venue is outdoors and people feel more comfortable coming to an outdoor venue than an indoor one. It’s going quite well and everybody thinks the sector seems to be rebounding nicely.
What is the impact of the Festival of the Arts on the cultural landscape?
Our impact is multifold. First of all, we’re a community uniter; that has always been our tagline, uniting our community through culture because when people share that experience of attending a concert or lecture together, they get a feeling of community, which is so important. We also feel it’s very important to make the arts accessible to everyone, which is why we have tickets starting at just $20. We also give away free tickets to deserving students and their families so that they can attend.
Another area that we focus on is arts education. Our schools are so tapped out trying to teach everything they need to teach and the arts are very often the first thing that’s cut, so we try very hard to fill that void.
We also recently won an award from the Florida Festivals and Events Association. We won Best Hybrid Event in the state for our music competition. We started this music competition as a completely virtual competition during the pandemic because music students had no outlet for performance whatsoever, which is so important to young musicians. Students upload a video performance of themselves and we have judges from around here, and around the country, who view those videos. We choose three winners and we reward cash prizes to our top 3 winners. First prize is $5,000 and an invitation to perform at the next year’s Festival. Second prize wins $3,000 and Third prize is $1,500. Prizes are awarded on stage at a Festival concert.
The purpose for the competition is to make an impact on that student, to give them the funds that they need to pursue their music career, which can be very expensive for a lot of families. Our track record has been phenomenal. The pianist who won last year is at Harvard, our flutist who won the year before is a senior at the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts and she has been accepted into every major music school in the country. So, we’re very excited about that.
How do you promote arts education in the community?
That’s a constant effort. We want people to know that the Festival is more than just a series of events. We are a cultural event but we’re also a community event and we’re very interested in bringing people together. As far as education for young people, we have artists and authors who regularly go to local schools. We will sometimes hold master classes where the artist will go to the school and work with the kids. We’ve had Brian Greene, who is a theoretical physicist who went to West Boca High School and not only spoke to their students but, through live streaming, spoke to science students throughout the county. We had astronaut Don Pettit at Spanish River High School two years ago. Jasmine Ward, an award-winning novelist, visited Spanish River High School in 2020. Every year, we try to get at least one artist to go to a school. It’s always about making that connection with the kids.
How do you see arts helping promote Palm Beach County as a naturally recognized artistic destination?
We have people who come to South Florida specifically to come to the Festival. And the arts are big business. Arts & Economic Prosperity 6, an economic and social impact study of the nation’s nonprofit arts and culture industry, found that nationally, the sector generated $151.7 billion of economic activity in 2022. We know that the Festival of the Arts is a draw to Palm Beach County. People visit to attend the festival, they also choose to live here because of the high quality of our arts and culture community. There is no doubt about it.
People come down from the north but we also want to focus on our friends to the west, like the Naples area, because it is an easy trip for them. We want to bring more people from Southwest Florida to the festival this year.
What is your outlook for the arts and culture landscape in Palm Beach County for the next five years?
We’re going to continue to grow. We are very dedicated to our mission of making sure that the arts are available to everyone in our community. I think the sector will continue to grow and Palm Beach County and its residents will continue to reap the benefits.
For more information, visit:
