About 1,000 students a year from across Miami-Dade County come to the Miami Music Project to learn a new instrument, get their homework done in a safe environment and pick up valuable life skills.
It's just one of several arts education programs in South Florida that were told via email late last week that they may no longer receive grant funding from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). Arts organizations across the country received the same word hours after the Trump administration threatened to eliminate the federal agency.
READ MORE: Florida arts funding remains uncertain, but Palm Beach County agency is hopeful
"Arts provide compassion," said Anna Klimala, the president and CEO of the Miami Music Project. "Arts provide empathy. Arts really offer a crucial building block for the community."
Miami-Dade County students from first through 12th grade qualify for Miami Music Project activities. The project offers free, year round and summer music education and development programming that includes teaching students how to play orchestral instruments.
The program was founded in 2008, and was inspired by a model of arts education called El Sistema that originated in Venezuela in the 1970s and created a free classical music program for young children from impoverished backgrounds.
The Miami-Dade program works out of locations in Homestead, Liberty City, Little Haiti, Little Havana, Miami Beach, Miami Gardens and Miami Springs.
"We set out to work with Miami's most under-resourced children with the greatest need and fewest resources," Klimala said.
While Klimala said programming won't cease, the potential loss of NEA grant funding is pushing a need to get creative about how they continue. The funding they received from the NEA goes toward paying the salaries of the music teachers and program coordinators on staff. Now more than ever, she said, community partnerships and local government support are crucial.
"I think cuts such as this one might have a ripple effect across the community. In our case, arts provide not only a safe space for the children, but also crucial skill development."
Klimala recently spoke with WLRN about the importance of arts education in South Florida, the cuts in federal funding and what the potential impact on the arts community more broadly may be.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
WLRN: What does the Miami Music Project do and what is the inspiration behind the project's programming model?
KLIMALA: We've been around for 17 years, and our mission is to bring social development through music to Miami's most under-resourced children and youth across the county. We annually reach over a thousand students, and that includes 750 students who are actually in our daily after school program, an additional 250 students, which we serve over the summer as well.
So, when you come to our program for your typical after school program, first we will do homework with you. We'll help you with whatever work you need to do for school. Then you're gonna get a snack from us. And then after that first hour, we will take you into two hours of very intensive orchestral training. So, we give all the children instruments, and we create ensembles in our seven locations across Miami-Dade County.
Really the main goal is to give the kids a skillset that they can use thanks to a very intensive music training and then apply to anything that they want to do in life.
Tell me about the history between Miami Music Project and the National Endowment for the Arts. How long have you been funded by them?
Miami Music Project has been really blessed that we have been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts for many, many, many years. Actually without a break since 2017 and before that, also on a couple of occasions. For us, that funding has been an incredible source of not only pride but also [it] provides us with what I would call a philanthropic leverage because NEA — it's like a stamp of approval for an organization.
When you get NEA funding, which is a national funding source, it's a government national funding source. It is very competitive. It's not easy to get. It helps us leverage other philanthropic dollars. So, beyond the amount that NEA is able to give us, it also helps us raise additional funding by raising the profile of the organization being funded by NEA.
All of our programming is completely free of charge. The last thing that I would ever want to do is to say 'no' to a family because I don't have funding to put them in my program.
You recently learned that the project may lose NEA grant funding as part of the federal administration's mass cancellation of those grants. What kind of impact do you think that could have on your organization?
We are looking at losing all the funding. 100%. This year we so far received 50% of our grant and we are still waiting for an additional 50%, which is the second installment. But for the future— for next year— we are actually looking at losing 100% of the funding. A big chunk of money [was] specifically dedicated to paying for the fees of our teaching artists who directly work with the students and teach them how to play instruments.
That's what the grant was for, and also for our programming staff — for people who help the families to make sure that the kids are in the program, that they are safe, and to make sure that parents are informed of everything. Basically, people who oversee the program [at] every single location.
Losing that funding will mean a lot because that means that we now have to go out and raise additional money to be able to pay for the teachers and pay for the staff.
So how important are community partnerships and local government support to your work, especially as federal funding becomes less reliable?
It is crucially important and I wanna be sure that I'm clear that I don't only speak for my music project. I am speaking for all the arts organizations and specifically arts education organizations that work in our community. And there are many, and they do incredible work and they provide the students with very, very life-changing, crucial programming.
Most of the arts education organizations, including Miami Music Project, don't have what's called earned revenue. We don't have a concert hall where we sell tickets and people come and buy and let's say 30% of our budget comes from that. We don't have that at all.
All of our funding comes from philanthropy, from grants, from government support and from individuals. All of our programming is completely free of charge to the families and the children, they don't pay for any of it. It costs us $5,000 to educate one child per year. The last thing that I would ever want to do is to say no to a family because I don't have space or I don't have funding to put them in my program.
In your opinion, what do these cuts and the threat to eliminate the agency altogether mean for the future of the arts community more broadly in South Florida?
I think cuts such as this one might have a ripple effect across the community. Last year we saw cuts of the state of Florida to arts organizations across the state. This year we are seeing the situation with NEA.
Arts really offer a crucial building block for the community. Arts provide compassion. Arts provide empathy.
But also in our case, arts provide not only a safe space for the children, but also crucial skill development. It goes way beyond just having a good experience in a theater. It's a hands-on activity that teaches you a skillset that then in return makes you become a contributing member of society.
And I think that could be in jeopardy if we are not supported by the big, large institutions of our society. Because, you know, having NEA also says, "We care about this," and it is important that the government decide to also support that. That's a very important statement for [our] entire society.
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