You're watching Southwest Florida in focus.

Coming up, the state's slimmer budget this year means local art groups are working harder to make ends meet after being denied government funding for another year.

Now, some companies may be forced to draw the curtains for good.

An ambitious new trail system looks to connect hundreds of miles of outdoor space across southwest Florida.

And exploring morality and faith with some of the brightest minds in entertainment.

Host Scott Carter talks about his new podcast venture with WGCU Hello, I'm Sandra Victorova Thank you for joining us.

Well, for the second year in a row.

More than a dozen Southwest Florida arts organizations lost state dollars they say is critical to their programs.

Last year, Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed $32 million in arts and culture grants that had been approved by the Florida legislature.

This year, the state's $115.5 billion budget includes over $18 million in arts and culture grants.

But only a handful of Southwest Florida arts organizations qualified for a share of that money.

14 Lee County arts organizations were denied state dollars, including the Alliance for the Arts and Florida Repertory Theater.

To learn more about the impact of these cuts.

We are joined by WGCU arts reporter Tom Hall.

Tom, welcome.

Thank you for joining us.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Thank you.

So help us to understand how critical these dollars really are.

Obviously, the arts organizations are saying it is important to their overall budget.

Well, the money is critical.

It supports their operations and allows them to have a full staff of employees.

And unfortunately, there are going to be some arts organizations that may very well have to shutter because of the lack of these funds.

Two years consecutive.

So I assume the cuts mean that these organizations are having to rely more on their donor base.

Correct.

That is.

And I spoke recently to the producing artistic director at Florida Repertory Theater, Craig Long, and hanging up.

And he he talked about the fact that the donor base is having to step forward to try to make up some of the shortfall.

We're heading into the season at least $150,000, down from what we thought we'd we might have, for our 28 season.

So we're doing a number of things.

We are very we have a very an excellent, donor, patron class here at Florida Rep who have come in many times.

They came in last summer as well when we when when all funding was denied, all arts funding was, done away with in the state of Florida.

And, and they, they know this year we're looking at some of up some of those similar challenges.

Unfortunately, Sandra, not every organization has the donor base that the Alliance for the Arts or Florida Rep does.

So for most arts organizations, especially the smaller ones, it's just not going to be possible for them to make up the shortfall by asking their members or donors to contribute more.

I think a lot of patrons and folks who, you know, just occasionally, maybe they dabble in arts performances, maybe wondering how is this going to actually impact performances?

What changes might they see?

I asked that question to Greg Morgan Hagan, and I think he not only speaks for Florida Rep, but he speaks for all theater performing groups across Southwest Florida.

When he says that you're going to be seeing smaller shows and, more modest shows.

One of the things that we have to look at is what a lot of theaters are doing is scaling down the size of their of their, their casts, or they're scaling back a little bit on what they spend on their scenery or what type of scenery that they do.

Was this a surprise to these organizations?

Did they have hope?

Did they think there was any possibility they'd be getting the funding?

Oh, I believe based upon past experience, every one of the arts organizations felt that they were going to get qualified for some money.

In the past, if you each application of scored by a committee in the past, if you scored an 85 or greater on your application, you received at least a partial distribution of the moneys that you qualified for.

For whatever reason, this year they changed the rubric.

And only organizations that quote that scored 95 or better receive full funding.

If you received a 94.5 like Florida Repertory Theater did, you got nothing.

So, Tom, I know you also visited Alliance for the Arts to see how they're coping with this financial burden.

Yeah, I spoke with Neil Voltou just recently took over as the executive director at the Alliance.

He really has his hands full.

And they also lost $150,000 in grant money that they're trying to make up.

But he sees a positive coming out of this.

In his estimation, he thinks that this is going to galvanize the art community.

And and finally make them see the benefit of speaking with one voice.

Our end goal is that we want to see a more empowered art and culture, organization and culture here in Lee County, so that that benefits everybody.

But it does take a step at a time and a long term view that says the first thing we need to do is really develop this network, listen, develop priorities, and then begin the process of implementing those.

Obviously, funding is at the top of the list for a lot of those priorities, but it's more than that.

It's also our culture.

So, Tom, I know while we obviously rely on the entertainment from from these organizations, there's also a real economic impact to our community.

Absolutely.

The arts are an economic driver.

In 2022, the Alliance for the Arts, in tandem with the Americans for the Arts, conducted a survey.

And what we discovered is, is that the nonprofit arts sector, just in Lee County, contributed $135 million to these, to the local economy.

That's more than Major League Baseball during spring training.

And statewide, the arts contributed in terms of tax dollars and revenues to the state, $5.7 billion in tax revenues.

Just go to Sarasota and see what happens when you take some of that dead tax money and invest it in art and culture.

I mean, they're booming.

They have an amazing, you know, art and culture sector, throughout their city.

Increases, tourism increases, you know, funding for schools and helping create the, the, you know, the innovators of the future right there in their hometown.

You got Miami, you got other areas in the state that we can see firsthand.

What happens when you invest in, you know, the arts and culture.

So we're trying to paint a picture for our local government officials that this is money that is an engine for our economy, that it creates a better culture.

For everybody.

Do we know what is on the horizon in terms of state funding?

Do any of these groups, hold out hope that perhaps next year they will get state dollars again?

Well, you're dealing with actors and artists.

There's always hope.

But there's a quite a bit of concern.

And one of the things that gives them concern is that the state of Florida only gave the arts organizations a two week window in which to file their application for the next grant cycle.

Normally they have more than six months to put together their performers and file their applications.

That doesn't bode well for the arts community.

Tom Hall, we thank you for your reporting on this.

Thank you.

I was a pleasure to be here.

Local walkers and bikers may soon be able to travel from one end of southwest Florida to the other.

After the break, a new trail system that will create a path from Saint Pete to Naples.

Uniting Southwest Florida through the great Outdoors, an ambitious project is underway to connect 420 miles of land and water from Tampa all the way south to Naples.

The Florida Gulf Coast Trail is building a series of new pathways to connect with existing trails across seven counties.

WGC Emma Rodriguez and Andrea melendez visited the key sites that bicyclists and hikers will get to enjoy.

The Florida Gulf Coast Trail has been a work in progress since the 1990s.

But with new Cross County collaboration, the project is slowly but surely coming together.

Come with me as we go from Bonita to Tampa to visit the existing sites that the Florida Gulf Coast Trail plan to link together and explore what a 400 plus mile trail could bring to our state's southwest coast.

On this Florida Gulf Coast Trail is a puzzle, and we're putting pieces in, and it's not like you work north to south.

You put the puzzle piece in where it fits, where you find it, and then you build from there.

Program Director Charles Hines and his team are putting the pedal to the metal.

The puzzle pieces.

Hines is talking about are parcels of land purchased by each participating county, with the help of the trust for Public Land.

Seven counties are a part of the Florida Gulf Coast Trail Alliance.

The route begins in south Collier County, then crawls north through Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota, Manatee, and Hillsborough counties, then jogs west to Pinellas County.

Existing trails in each county will be linked.

However, a few pieces of the puzzle still need some work to be usable, but the overall goal of the trail has great potential.

You have communities that really don't have that sense of place or don't interrelate to other areas.

It creates a connectivity and an identity for the whole area.

This 400 mile trail can help people get in shape and increase road safety and ramp up tourism dollars.

The southernmost site is the Benita Estero Rail Trail, a long abandoned rail road connecting Lee and Collier counties.

The counties, their municipalities and the nonprofit Friends of Benita Estero Rail Trail are rallying millions to purchase the railroad from its current owner, Seminole Gulf Railway.

Beth Castro, with the nonprofit, hopes to make Bonita and Estero into trail towns or towns that connect to a trail.

Those towns should see significant economic growth from the trail.

You look at Venice up in Florida, a few of the Central Florida, trail towns.

They anticipate that we could grow the revenue in this area about 4 to $9 million.

Once complete, the Bonita Estero Rail Trail will connect with the John Yarbrough Linear Park off illegal road.

The nearly finished Legacy Trail in Sarasota County was a railroad converted into a trail in 2008.

The span reaches from the Venice Trail Depot to downtown Sarasota.

One extension is planned to branch out to the 600 acre Nathan Benderson Park.

Luis Casita, with friends of the Legacy Trail, says being a part of the Florida Gulf Coast Trail will bring more visibility to Sarasota County, especially tourists.

It gives them more opportunities to go to different places.

Wouldn't you like to go to downtown Bradenton every now and then?

Wouldn't you like to maybe go to the Bishop museum?

Wouldn't you like to go south?

Maybe to warm mineral springs?

Cassie Bear anticipates the number of trail users to grow beyond the 700,000 people they've already counted.

Sarasota County also collaborated with the Florida Department of Transportation to build overpasses along the trail to avoid road crossings.

This is part of the intent for the Florida Gulf Coast Trail to avoid intersections when possible, because Florida leads the nation in pedestrian fatalities.

Tanya merkle with Dot says this will help that statistic.

Crossings are a challenge for everybody, both the motoring public as well as my cyclists and pedestrians.

That's why we've installed quite a few of the pedestrian overpasses to make it safe passage for everyone, because that keeps down any of the conflict points that there could be with motor vehicles.

Further north, the puzzle piece called the Manatee Gateway Greenway has been in the works since the late 1990s, but with a recent push from the Alliance.

Construction has finally begun.

It will stitch Manatee and Hillsborough counties together.

Charlie Hunsicker with Manatee County is an enthusiastic fan, but there's a legitimate, you know, tie in between mobility on the road and mobility on the trail to get from A to B.

It's just a really fantastic feeling for me to be be able to say that manatee will be part of that program.

The northernmost and final existing site of the Florida Gulf Coast Trail is the in-progress Howard Franklin Bridge.

Currently, the bridge's southbound span is available for motorists, but not for bikers.

A barrier separates the path from the road.

Sally Thompson is the chair of Hillsborough County's Greenways and Trails Committee.

She says a more convenient bike path connecting Hillsborough and Pinellas counties has been a long time coming and can help people get outdoors.

My parents ride their bicycles and they moved.

They came to Florida the early 1940s.

Well, I think it's great for exercise.

I think it's great for people's health.

The trust for public land and all counties involved are still working to complete the Florida Gulf Coast Trail.

And while it's unknown when the project will be finished in full.

Passion is at an all time high.

And support on all levels is in abundance.

For WGCU news, I'm Emma Rodriguez in Bonita, Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch and Tampa.

While enjoying Southwest Florida trails, you can put on your headphones and enjoy a new radio program at WGCU FM that showcases conversations of biblical proportions.

Ye gods with Scott Carter talks with comedians, musicians, writers, faith leaders, and more to explore what drives their moral compass.

The podcast, produced in partnership with WGCU Public Media, is a thoughtful and entertaining conversation on faith.

Here's a preview of the latest episode featuring comedian Martin Short.

What are your memories of growing up Catholic in Canada?

How important was religion to your parents?

My mother was an Anglican, which is Episcopalian, but I don't think there was any weekly church going on.

My father, as all my family are, still was Irish Catholic.

Religion is a bigger part to the Irish than certainly aspects of North America.

And so we went to church every Sunday, but I wasn't baptized until I was seven.

And you've said that you've often been mistaken as Jewish, which you find very flattering.

Absolutely.

I'm 10% Jewish and my age inside.

For more on New Gods, we are joined by host Scott Carter.

Welcome, Scott.

We appreciate you joining us.

Thank you very much, Sandra.

And it is a delight to be to be meeting a new WGCU person who I, I feel like I've met all most of your team, over the course of the last few months, and it's a delight to meet you.

Well, we are excited to be partnering with you.

So, Scott, you are the executive producer on so many successful programs like Real Time with Bill Moore.

How do you go from the world of politics and comedy to a podcast on spirituality?

Well, actually, this this all goes back to I wrote a play many years ago that's been in now 26 or 27 cities in four different countries.

And it's about, it's called the gospel according to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy.

Discord.

People refer to it as discord, and it's about these three people who all did their own versions of the Gospels.

And so my play has them in a limbo setting where each thinks that his path to salvation depends upon convincing the other two that their theology is wrong.

And so we've done, for instance, in LA, we did a two different theaters in one year, 101 performances, and I would do talkbacks.

And because I've worked with, a lot of people, having done 35 years of, comedy, variety TV, I would have one of my friends, Jane Lynch, Lewis Black, Susie Essman all sorts of people would come to the show, and then afterwards we'd get up on stage and I would ask them two questions.

What what, if any, religion was there in your household when you were growing up, and where are you spiritually now?

And then they would tell me about 2 or 3 minutes worth, and then I would give frame my experience for 2 or 3 minutes.

And at that point, half of the audience had their hands up and wanted to share with something that one of us had said.

And so and so then during the pandemic, I, I was going to, the First Congregational Church here in Los Angeles and, and during the pandemic, I got a call from the senior minister who said, look, we can't have people, in house and we've had a small staff.

The hardest thing for us to do is sermons.

If you ever want to do an interview with somebody who, you know will do that instead of a sermon, and then, and then that'll take the place of the sermon that week.

And then what happened was, as the pandemic was winding down, a executive who I used to work with at HBO and he said, what have you been up to?

And I started describing these conversations that I was doing, at the church.

And he said, can I get a link?

Can I listen to them?

He goes back to New York, after his vacation here.

He calls me up a couple of weeks later and said, I've listened to all of your conversations.

I think I can sell this as a podcast.

So tell us about some of the topics you'll be discussing.

Yeah.

It's it it's not so much that they're coming to a preexisting topic.

What I start doing is delving into what they believe, and the rules.

What I say is the rules, the rules that rule your life are ye gods.

And so I want to cause everyone, I think a Scott and Sandra, you probably have one a code of conduct.

You have a way of deciding if your own behavior or the behavior of other people is appropriate or inappropriate.

And we change these notions as we grow up.

So not only is this a show where I've had people of, many different faiths, but also people of no faith, so, so one of the things that this show is doing is it's showing people the many, many different ways that one can have a spiritual practice, whether it's under the name of religion or not.

Has the experience hosting this program changed your views on spirituality?

Yes.

And that's a great question.

What I've been talking amongst our team about is how over a period of time we see, different guests having some of the same perceptions.

Rainn Wilson, who is going to be one of the early guests, was originally a Baha'i.

And then he went away from the church, and then he then theater became his God.

And, you know, like Susie Essman from Curb Your Enthusiasm says that humor is her God killer.

Mike says that rap music is his god.

And, a lot of people have that notion that, Armin Zimmerman from, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, said the theater is his god.

And and so I'm very interesting interested by what people consider to be sacred in their lives.

Scott, thank you so much.

We wish you the best of luck with this.

And you can listen to episodes of High Gods with Scott Carter on WGCU FM.

That's Fridays at 3 p.m. and Sundays at noon.

Episodes will also be available on the NPR Podcast Network beginning on August 27th.

Thank you Scott.

We appreciate it.

Thank you Sandra.

Coming up, bringing exercise to the skies.

Aerial silks aren't just for a circus performer.

Some Southwest Floridians are turning to aerial aerobics to improve their health.

It's a combination of aerobics and athletics.

Aerial silks began as a performative art, but has since been adapted by some gyms to create a unique, full body workout.

As Tom Hall and Amanda Inscore Whittamore learned.

Despite what looks like daunting exercise, anyone can learn to master the silks, high rises.

Aerial silks originated in France in 1959, with Cirque du Soleil incorporating them into their performances.

Beginning in 1987.

Since then, they've evolved into an elegant and dynamic performance art that combines poses, inversions, and body movements to tell dramatic and evocative stories.

In the past decade, silks have also emerged as a fitness option, with aerial silk gyms cropping up worldwide.

Starting out, it can be really intimidating, but it definitely is something that builds up over time, the strength for it and everything.

Jana Algeo was introduced to aerial silks a few years ago, with no background in weight training, dance or choreography.

She really didn't think she had the strength to do silks or any fitness level.

Can we can do some form of silks?

You don't have to be climbing to the top to be doing silks, so you don't have to be doing crazy things.

You can be in a knot or doing something that's a little more simple for whatever skill level or strength level that you have.

Wondrium.

Offering aerial fitness is fit to fly in Fort Myers.

It's owned and operated by Katie O'Connell.

She's found that with consistent weekly practice, newbies can perform sophisticated routines in a relatively short amount of time.

O'Connell says that newcomers quickly discover the kind of moves they prefer.

It's just trying to get people comfortable and figuring out what they like best.

Some people like to be upside down a lot.

Some people like to do drops where you start at the top, and then you wrap a certain number of reps, and then when you let go, you'll tumble down to a certain position.

Some people prefer to do a lot of more flowy posing, that sort of thing, but it's just kind of figuring it out as you go along.

Trying a little bit of everything, being brave, giving it a go, and then you figure out what you like.

Algeo delights in stacking drops.

Sara Wake is a Kayla Forte of taking aerial silks in a different direction.

They like working as a duo.

They've been doing some different, doubles acts, and it's very cool.

It's kind of another unique offshoot, almost a separate apparatus, if you will, because you're holding on to another person in lieu of the silks at some points.

And so there's a lot of trust there, obviously.

So you need to know who you're performing with and what they're capable of and what you're capable of.

While most aerialists do silks for the exercise, some love performing.

There are a lot more national and local competitions and things going on.

There are a lot more small local performances and things going on.

Things like what's happening, the sideshow at the Sydney Byrne Art center.

There are a couple of other local studios down in Bonita and Naples that offer local shows here and there.

And it's become a lot more open to the public.

It's become a lot more accessible to people who wanted to try it.

Whether practicing or performing, silks provide three benefits that are hard to get with other forms of exercise.

The first is concentration.

When you're on the silks, you're definitely in the moment.

The second is camaraderie.

Silk aerialists share a close bond.

Jenna Algeo describes the third with the silks, I can feel graceful, but it's because I was taught certain tricks and taught different sequences, and I can then make it my own.

First is with dance.

You're kind of out in the open.

It's just your body, like, performing for you.

With the silks, you have things to go off of, if that makes sense.

So I think that was a perfect in-between point for me.

Without the dance training, without serious gymnastics training or acrobatics training, this was a nice like midpoint for me.

For WGCU news, this is Tom Hall with Amanda Whitmore.

Despite being known for its softness and sheen, the fabric used in aerial silk aerobics is capable of supporting over 2,000 pounds.

The strength ensures the safety and sturdiness of the apparatus for performers.

Well, coming up next week, we talked with members of Gen Z and find out why making phone calls and in-person connections cause anxiety for some.

One expert shares what younger generations can do to be more social.

We thank you for joining us today.

Don't forget to like and subscribe to our WGCU News YouTube channel where you can find all of our stories and those extended interviews.

We hope you have a great day and we'll see you next week.