Local Businesses Rally to Support Hippodrome Following Budget Cut

This summer, managing director for the Hippodrome Jessica Hurov sent an email out to supporters and fans of the theater with the subject “An urgent message from the Hippodrome.”

“In case you haven’t heard, this year, the Florida state legislature has— once again— decimated funding for cultural grants, impacting all 489 cultural organizations statewide,” the email read. “Thanks to these cuts, Florida now has the dubious honor of being ranked 48th in the nation for funding for the arts, as the total investment represents just 0.003 percent of the Florida state budget.”

Hurov said that the max amount of money that the Hippodrome can receive from the state is about $150,000, which is what the theater got in 2014. However, for this fiscal year, the Hippodrome will receive just $9,941, which is just seven percent of the max amount possible.

The Florida Division of Cultural Affairs assigns how much money different arts organizations receive, but it’s the Florida legislature that ultimately decides how much funding the Division of Cultural Affairs has to spread around to the different organizations.

This year, the legislature decided to focus its budget on cleaning up after Hurricane Irma and funding school safety programs in the wake of the Parkland shooting, Hurov said.

She added that while they at the Hippodrome support these projects, they are disappointed that the state has decided to cut funding for the arts to pay for them, especially since arts funding already takes up such a small percentage of the budget in the first place.

“This instability in our state funding makes long-term planning and operating a nonprofit very tumultuous, because you never know what level of funding we’ll be provided from one year to the next,” she said.

Theaters, museums and orchestras across the state are scrambling to find a solution to the money problem that’s been thrust upon them by the state. The Hippodrome is not alone in this sense.

Thanks to these cuts, Florida now has the dubious honor of being ranked 48th in the nation for funding for the arts, as the total investment represents just 0.003 percent of the Florida state budget.

While the year ahead may initially look bleak for the Hippodrome, Hurov said that productions and events at the theater won’t decrease. In fact, the opposite is true.

“Our philosophy is that the more that we can be doing to keep our community engaged, entertained and active in the Hippodrome, that’s our lifeblood,” she said. “That’s our reason for being, so our response definitely isn’t to do less; it’s to do more with less.”

Hurov said that the Hipp’s response to the funding cuts will be to increase the amount of things the theater will do over the upcoming season. The more things the theater does, the more people they will get through the door. With more interest sparked within the community, they can raise more money to keep the theater afloat.

Additionally, the Hippodrome does not plan to increase the ticket price for main stage productions, Hurov said.

“Our mission and our vision is to keep the theater as accessible to as broad a population as we possibly can, so raising the ticket price would be antithetical to how we want to be able to serve our community,” she said.

Local restaurants lend a hand

While the Hippodrome has it’s own plans for making it through the 2018-19 fiscal year, some local businesses are stepping up to the plate to help out.

One such business is Paramount Grill, owned and run by chef Clifton Nelson. He has pledged to donate 10 percent of the restaurant’s gross sales for every Tuesday over the next year.

He said that the Hippodrome has become an integral part of downtown Gainesville, and he would hate to see it go away because of funding issues.

“I kind of feel like it’s been one of the anchors to begin what’s happened down here over the course of 30 years,” he said. “I’m not by any means slamming a 16 movie-plex movie theater, but those are in every city and the Hippodrome is not. The Hippodrome is unique to here.”

Nelson said that in the first two weeks of “the Hipp Tuesdays” promotion, he raised $350. At that rate, Paramount will have raised over $9,000 for the theater after a year, and Nelson said sales are usually higher after summer.

“$10,000 over a year is significant, but it doesn’t make up for the $150,000 cut that they’ve experienced over the last two years,” he said. “I’m just doing my part.”

Those at the Hippodrome are thankful for what Nelson has decided to do for the theater, Hurov said. She added that the Hippodrome has had support from other local businesses and people as well, including a recent benefit for the Hippodrome at Boca Fiesta.

Our response definitely isn’t to do less; it’s to do more with less.

She said that they have a lot more things planned for the fall and spring semesters to get people coming to the Hippodrome for things other than the main stage productions, including a jazz series being produced in partnership with the University of Florida this fall.

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