Cultural  Division Milestones
2006
  • Broward County has ranked number # 1 in sales for the designer State of the Arts License Plate for more than 5 years, signaling the community’s commitment to the arts in Broward County.
     
  • The Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts, a $13 million project, eight years in the planning, that will create 37 new units of affordable “live/work” housing for artists, and transform the historic West Side School into a new home for the Broward County Historical Commission, broke ground in June.
2005
  • The Broward Cultural Division won its most National Association of County Information Officers Awards.  Eight awards were given in the fields of web design, annual reports, invitations, brochures and Cultural Quarterly Magazine.
     
  • In one of the Cultural Division’s most successfully executed public relation campaigns, internationally-renowned author and economist Richard Florida visited Broward County and spoke about his latest book, ‘Flight of the Creative Class,’ at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
2004
  • The Park Bond Master Plan - ‘Theater of Regeneration: toward an aesthetic of loops, layers and lenses,’ was completed and received a National Association of Counties Award and a Place Planning Award from the Environmental Design Research Association.
     
  • In August, the first ever Arts Integration Conference was held at Dillard Center for the Performing Arts, to a full-house of 300 teachers and teaching artists in Broward County. This widely acclaimed educational arts conference doubled its attendees over the following two years and continues to gain nation-wide acclaim and successful feedback.
2002
  • Broward Cultural Division Director Mary A. Becht, was honored with an Arts Administrator of the Year Award by Americans for the Arts’ periodical ‘Arts Management.’ Mary Becht has been the director for more than 18 years.
     
  • The Australian publication ‘Designing the World’s Best Public Art’, a glossy, coffee table book, named four of Broward County’s public art pieces as among the world’s best, in an international listing, including Spain, Cuba, Japan and the Czech Republic.
2001
  • The Cultural Information Center, a one-stop shop for tickets, cultural information, gifts and snacks, was a ten-year project in the making, and opened in November.
2000
  • Broward County Cultural Plan 2010 is completed and released to the public.
1999
  • Artist Martha Schwartz's, Flying Saucer Grove installation is completed at the National Car Rental Center Arena which is currently known as the Bank Atlantic Center.
1996
  • ArtServe begins offering half-price, day-of-performance tickets to theaters and other cultural venues.
     
  • The Museum of New Arts, our community's first virtual gallery, goes online as does the Broward County Cultural Division with its own home page.
     
  • The Blockbuster IMAX Theater at the Museum of Discovery and Science introduces 3D technology to provide audiences with a multi-sensory film experience.
1995
  • An exhibit of 100 drawings and 14 voluminous sculptures by Fernando Botero makes a stop at the Museum of Art during its world tour.
     
  • The 500-seat Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center opens to showcase local, national and international talent.
     
  • The Gold Coast Jazz Society and Bonnet House present the first Bonnet House Jazz Fest.
     
  • Dianne and Michael Bienes announce a gift of $1 million to the Broward County Public Library for creation of a literary arts center for rare books, special collections and literary programming.
     
  • Miami City Ballet launches its 10th anniversary season with a full 40 percent of its subscriber base in Broward County.
     
  • Ordinance #95-20 (Public Art and Design Program), sponsored by Commissioner Lori Nance Parrish and unanimously supported by the Broward County commission, allocates two percent of various capital construction budgets for artist design services and the creation and maintenance of artworks.
1994
  • The Greater Miami Opera and the Opera Guild join forces to become Florida Grand Opera.
     
  • Florida's Singing Sons Boychoir receives a prestigious fourth place award at the 48th International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales.
     
  • The Broward County Cultural Division rolls onto the information superhighway through SEFLIN (the Southeast Florida Library Information Network).
     
  • ArtServe, Inc. celebrates the grand opening of its new facilities in space shared with the Fort Lauderdale Branch Library on Sunrise Blvd.
1993
  • The Josephine S. Leiser Opera Center opens as the new home of the Fort Lauderdale Opera, Opera Guild and Opera Society.
     
  • Development begins on Design Broward, a five-year master plan for public art in Broward County. The program is formally launched in 1995.
     
  • The Fort Lauderdale Historical Society assumes control of the New River Inn and several other historic structures on Southwest Second Avenue and announces plans to establish a historic village complex.
     
  • The National Endowment for the Arts announces results of a study that shows Broward County residents participate in arts events at the highest rate of any of the 12 cities surveyed.
     
  • Ordinance #93-8 (sales tax on rental of tangible property), sponsored by Commissioner Lori Nance Parrish and unanimously supported by the Broward County Commission, establishes a stable source of grant funds for cultural organizations.
1992
  • Charles Mills creates a 36-panel, 123-foot mural on Sistrunk Boulevard to illustrate the Broward African-American community's enduring heritage.
     
  • Artists & Company, a group of nine visual artists representing a wide range of media, launches a program of Artists' Studio Tours.
     
  • ArtServe, Inc. debuts to provide office space, shared business services, administrative expertise, and exhibit and rehearsal space to non-profit cultural organizations and individual artists in Broward County.
     
  • Acclaimed composer, arranger and conductor Peter Nero signs on as Principal Pops conductor of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra.
     
  • The Museum of Discovery and Science and Blockbuster IMAX Theater opens the doors to their 85,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility.
     
  • The Broward County Cultural Division begins to implement a countywide arts education five-year partnership plan, Arts Impact, with the community, and the public school system.
1991
  • The Broward Center for the Performing Arts opens its doors with the spectacular touring production of The Phantom of the Opera.
     
  • Broward Cultural Division's Cooperative Marketing Program, Broward Arts Explosion, and the 24-Hour Arts and Entertainment Hotline make their debuts.
     
  •  The Council creates its multicultural committee.
     
  • Parker Playhouse celebrates its 25th anniversary.
     
  • A gift to the Museum of Art of a $50 million collection of works by William Glackens and other artists helps to establish the institution's national reputation.
     
  • Old Dillard School is placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
     
  • The newly renamed Florida Philharmonic Orchestra makes its national radio debut on the Alamo Classical Music Hour, underwritten by the Fort Lauderdale-based car rental company; John Graham becomes executive director of the Philharmonic.
1990
  • Broward County celebrates its 75th anniversary.
     
  • Evelyn Fortune Bartlett, who donated the Bonnet House estate to the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation in 1983, is one of 15 recipients of the National Preservation Honor Award.
     
  • Buehler Planetarium begins offering laser light shows in the Zeiss Theatre.
     
  • Construction is completed on the southwest Second Street Sidewalks Expansion, the first phase of the Riverwalk project.
     
  • Cultural Quarterly receives an Award of Excellence from the National Association of Counties.
     
  • The 50,000-square-foot Coral Springs City Centre opens as a multipurpose facility incorporating an auditorium, gymnasium and outdoor amphitheater.
     
  • Duane Hanson's lifelike sculpture Vendor with Walkman is installed at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport.
1989
  • Young at Art opens in its permanent facility in the Fountain Shoppes in Plantation.
     
  • The Opera Guild and Gold Coast Opera Theatre join forces to present Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow at War Memorial Auditorium.
     
  • The Sinfonia Virtuosi and Chorus launches its inaugural season.
     
  • The County's Art in Public Places Program commissions seven works for Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, including a life-size sculpture by Duane Hanson and an aluminum construction by Dorothy Gillespie.
     
  • The Broward County Main Library celebrates its fifth anniversary.
     
  • The Broward county commission's commitment to local cultural programs exceeds $1 million for the first time.
     
  • Two prominent arts leaders enter the local scene as Kenworth W. Moffett becomes executive director of the Museum of Art and Gregory von Hausch takes over the reins of the Broward County Film Society.
     
  • Franz and Keven Lynch launch the South Florida Black Film Festival.
     
  • Ordinance #89-33 (music store sales tax), sponsored by Commissioner Gerald F. Thompson and unanimously supported by the Broward County Commission, establishes a stable source of grant funds for cultural organizations.
1988
  • Discovery Center hosts Dino-Might 88, an exhibit of 12 lifelike dinosaurs in the old McCrory’s on Andrews Avenue.
     
  • An "On the Arts" column by Miami Herald community Relations Manager Richard Fallon asks whether Broward County is ready to develop its own Business Volunteers for the Arts program (BVA/Broward will be founded one year later.)
     
  • The Museum of Art participates in the inaugural showing of Picasso sketchbooks as part of the international world tour of the works.
     
  • James Judd signs a three-year contract as artistic director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Florida.
     
  • Mary Becht announces the publication of the first Cultural Master Plan for Broward County, which was developed over a three-year period.
     
  • Joseph and Louise Rumbaugh of Fort Lauderdale announce a $1 million gift to the capital campaign for the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
     
  • Brian C. Smith's off-Broadway Theatre and the Vinnette Carroll Repertory Company open their doors.
     
  • The Arts and Science district begins to take shape as design concepts; showing the Performing Arts Center, the Discovery Center and the Esplanade Park are released.
     
  • Voters approve a charter referendum changing the name of the Broward Arts Council to the Broward County Cultural Division.
1987
  • Premiere issue of Cultural Quarterly, Broward County's arts magazine.
 
 
   
Broward County Board of Commissioners
Community Services Department
Cultural Division
100 S. Andrews Ave
Fort Lauderdale, FL  33301
Phone: 954-357-7457 Fax: 954-357-5769
 email:  cultradiv@broward.org