Specifications include, but are not limited to:. The City of Miami Beach, Florida (hereinafter referred to as the “City”) is soliciting Letters of Interest (“LOI”) from qualified consultants that will be able to provide strategic planning and consulting services for the Tourism and Culture Department. Over the past decade, the cultural landscape of Miami Beach has evolved into a world-class destination for performing and visual arts. Visionary leaders have long understood the transformative potential of the arts and cultural economy for Miami Beach. In 1984, the City launched its Art in Public Places program that allocates currently 2 percent of hard costs for City and public/private projects to purchase public art. In 1998, the City reinforced its commitment to the arts by establishing the Cultural Arts Council to develop, coordinate and promote the arts in Miami Beach. Since the program’s inception, the Mayor and Commission and the Cultural Arts Council have awarded approximately $18 million in cultural arts grants, supporting thousands of performances, exhibits, and other cultural activities in the City. At present, the City awards about $480,000 in annual grants to cultural anchor institutions and another $500,000 to dozens of cultural presenters that create cycles of performances and events all year round. In addition, about $2 million are allocated to sponsor cultural, sports and holiday events throughout the year. This successful program is innovative, far-reaching, and energetic. The City’s cultural investment is complemented by privately sponsored events. The result is an arts agenda impressive in reach, frequency, and programmatic diversity. While Miami Beach has a rich and well-managed program that supports the regional arts and culture ecosystem all year round, it lacks an integrated vision that positions culture as a central pillar of economic development for the City. While the Covid-19 Pandemic has taken a toll on the volume of local cultural activity, the City has sustained its financial commitment to anchor and cultural presenters at pre-pandemic levels and further bolstered that commitment with an additional $880,000 in Covid-relief support approved to date. The City intends to continue to provide the full roster of innovative arts and cultural programming it currently supports and ensure that revenues allocated are maximized through a comprehensive planning and evaluation of its current investments. Accordingly, the City is looking to develop a comprehensive long-term cultural master plan that focuses on the activities with the highest “return on investment.” Social and economic impact, brand identity, and neighborhood transformation should be integrated into the comprehensive arts and cultural plan. Arts, culture and creativity will become even more essential to Miami Beach’s unique character and identity in the presence of emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, climate risks and fierce competition across the South Florida region. Creativity and innovation are the engines driving today’s economy with skill-based activities and imaginative individuals contributing increasingly more to prosperity, employment, social cohesion, and quality of life. The City is seeking a qualified consultant to develop an innovative strategic plan that considers the tremendous growth the City’s cultural community has experienced over the past decade and sets milestones to support continual growth for the future. The cultural strategic planning process will engage local arts and cultural organizations, stakeholders and supporters, as well as City residents, to explore ways to strengthen and improve access to the City’s tremendous cultural assets and engagements. The resulting cultural plan should provide the vision, policy framework, implementation strategies, organizational structures, funding requirements and methods of measuring the success needed to further develop the City’s cultural community, and better integrate arts and culture into other policy and practice areas. Broad strategies to consider include the following: Research and discovery- review of past experience and past reports, data gathering, mapping of local cultural assets, and identification of opportunities. Public Engagement- assess the current internal and external situation of the Miami Beach cultural landscape through in person and online surveys, interviews, focus groups and events. Create an inspiring vision and drafting statements that define where the Miami Beach Cultural Affairs programs wishes to be by the end of the planning period. Set measurable objectives that will propel the program to where it wants to be. Build consensus among leadership, management and stakeholders to support the plan. Draft annual operating and fiscal action plans to achieve the agreed objectives and bolster a case for support. Design instruments to evaluate progress and develop the flexibility to adapt the plan to evolving circumstances. Examine existing funding levels to cultural organizations. Examine existing programming and generate creative ideas on appropriate expanded cultural programs and required infrastructure. Recommend required resources and staffing to sustain an effective and productive cultural strategy and operation. Summarize findings for public review and comment. Preparation and presentation of a cultural plan that offers a blueprint to support art and culture.
