The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs has developed a series of grant programs to promote the growth of Miami-Dade County's cultural community. Each program is designed to address specific kinds of cultural projects and organizations or individual artists' needs. The Department considers its grants programs to be essential in the development of our County's many cultural assets. Public funding also insures that residents and visitors are provided with year-round educational and entertainment opportunities.

The Department continues to evolve its programming with annual reviews. Input on programs is received from many sources, including ongoing interaction with grantees, recommendations received from peer review grants panels, and its annual, public planning process which takes the form of monthly "town-meeting" style sessions inviting comment and recommendations from cultural and community representatives.

Each of the grant programs is announced through published and disseminated guidelines and application forms and legally advertised deadlines. The grants program guidelines set forth the goals of each program, eligibility requirements and instructions for completion of the application form. Each of the Department's grant programs requires organizations to show evidence of matching funds from other public and private sector sources in the form of a complete revenue budget which must correspond in total to the detailed expenditure budget. On average, these County grants are matched by a factor of 15 other public and/or private sector dollars to one.

The Department has developed a multi-level review process, which begins with staff review and a required consultation with the applicant. At this interview, Department staff advises the applicant as to eligibility and appropriateness of the proposed project, and informs the applicant of other public and private sector funding opportunities. The Department appoints a peer review panel for each program with an explicit interest in balancing its composition ethnically, racially, geographically as well as with a sensitivity to gender and area of cultural and community expertise. The panel meets at a publicly announced session to evaluate grant applications and make initial funding recommendations to the Cultural Affairs Council. These recommendations are forwarded to the Council for review. It is important to note that Council members are represented on each grants review panel to provide a link between these stages.

The Council's action on panel recommendations is submitted to Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners for final approval. The Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners reviews these recommendations in the form of grant agreements negotiated by Department staff and requiring detailed project descriptions and itemized budgets specifying use of the grant funds. In addition, these contracts contain performance specifications, reporting and monitoring procedures, and enforcement provisions, which are implemented by Department staff in coordination with involved County departments (i.e., Finance, Budget, County Manager, County Attorney). The grants process developed by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs is considered a national model for a fair and equitable system to develop and support cultural excellence. It is a direct consequence of this consistently applied process that the Department has been consistently awarded federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to implement new programs. In addition to recognizing the effectiveness of this grant review process, the NEA has cited the Department's interactive public planning process as an authentic method of both accurately assessing community-wide cultural needs and developing innovative and responsive cultural grants programs.

Our Grants Program brochure, which outlines our programs, is available on audiocassette or in large print upon request. Persons who are hearing impaired may request an interpreter for the required staff consultation and/or panel meeting by giving seven business days written notice prior to the scheduled date.

All funded activities must provide equal access and opportunity in employment and services and may not discriminate on the basis of disability, race or ethnicity, color, creed, national origin, religion, age, gender or sexual preference, in accordance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 as amended (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The Department reserves the right to revise information published on this site. Please call the Department's office at 305-375-4634 to confirm information, including but not limited to panel meeting dates and times. All programs are contingent upon the approval of the Department's annual budget by the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners. Please refer to specific program guidelines for detailed information and eligibility requirements.