Gainesville City Commission asks staff for options to provide $55,000 in funding to Heartwood Soundstage

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the March 5 Gainesville City Commission meeting, Commissioners directed staff to bring back options for providing $55,000 in funding to Heartwood Soundstage.

City Manager search update

At the end of the morning session, with Commissioners James Ingle and Desmon Duncan-Walker absent, Mayor Harvey Ward said he was “uncomfortable having a discussion about the City Manager [hiring] process with 30% of our membership not here.” Commissioners agreed to move that agenda item to the first meeting in April.

Heartwood Soundstage funding

On December 11, 2025, Chelsea Carnes, Director of Heartwood Soundstage, sent emails to the Gainesville City Commissioners, asking for the City’s “support and partnership to remain viable… Heartwood is currently struggling to survive as an independent venue. Rising operating costs and the lingering financial effects of the pandemic have left us struggling to make ends meet. This year, in an effort to build long-term sustainability, we transitioned from a for-profit to a nonprofit model. Thanks to that transition, we’ve been awarded just over $100,000 from the County’s Nature & Culture Destination Enhancement Grant. That support, along with strategic staffing changes and some leniency from our landlord, has helped us stabilize in the short term. However, we remain at least $55,000 short of what is required to keep Heartwood operating in 2026. Without additional support, we face the real possibility of downsizing or closure, an outcome that would be deeply felt across Gainesville’s cultural landscape.”

The email went on to say that the venue applied for the City’s PAPI (Principal Arts Producing Institutions) grants, but that program is limited to “presenters,” and the City said Heartwood is a “producer.” In a subsequent email to Commissioner Ed Book, Carnes said Mayor Ward was willing to bring the issue to a Commission meeting.

Mayor Ward: “There’s an opportunity for you to tell us a little more and for us to ask questions and come to some good resolution, I hope, for what has become a real institution for the arts and for economic development on South Main Street.”

At the March 5 meeting, Ward said he invited Carnes “to tell us a little more and for us to ask questions and come to some good resolution, I hope, for what has become a real institution for the arts and for economic development on South Main Street.”

“One-time stipend”

Carnes gave a brief presentation that included much of the information above and said Heartwood is asking for a “one-time stipend to help us deal with some budget shortfalls we’re experiencing.” She said her “second ask” was for the Commission to review the eligibility requirements for the PAPI grants, “because I think Heartwood should be considered as eligible for that grant.” She also thought the funding for the grant should be increased because costs have increased for arts organizations. 

Carnes said, “This funding request doesn’t come from a place of failure; it comes from a place of success.” She said Heartwood was founded in 2017 as a “small listening room” but now has two stages, the 125-seat indoor stage and an outdoor stage that can accommodate up to 2,000 people and multi-day festivals. “We’re bringing artists of a caliber that really haven’t been seen, probably since the Great Southern Music Hall was open. We’re really putting Gainesville back on the map as a place to come see concerts… and with that comes more expenses and growth.”

“Heartwood should really fall into that category of an arts producer”

Carnes said Heartwood was originally structured as an LLC, but it was restructured as a 501(c)(3) in September 2025, and they brought in $864,000 in ticket revenue last year. However, she said, when she took over the nonprofit, she inherited $250,000 in debt, and the County grant of $101,800 went toward paying that off. She said she started reducing costs and was able to reduce recurring annual costs by another $95,000, so she’s “gotten it down to about $55,000,” but she hasn’t been able to find any grants that the venue would be eligible for. She said that when she was told the venue would not be eligible for a PAPI grant, “the people at Cultural Affairs… said I could push back on that, and so that’s part of what I’m doing today, is pushing back on that.” She said Heartwood “should really fall into that category of an arts producer.”

Carnes said the venue has plans to increase revenue, including applying for a special performing arts center liquor license, fundraising, and new events and partnerships. 

Public comment

During public comment, nine people (including six with financial ties to Heartwood and one Heartwood volunteer) spoke in favor of the funding request.

Ward said he was thinking about this from two angles: “First of all, the artistic angle:… every community agrees you want to grow the arts… The flip side from the arts community, though, is that you’re directly keeping a good flow of foot traffic open for four or five other businesses.” He said the City has previously indirectly invested in the venue with facade grants for surrounding buildings. He continued, “The question before us is, how do we consider this, and how does it fit into what we do? And how do we support this financially as a City organization without just saying, ‘Hey, thanks for showing up and asking for money’?”

Book said, “Nobody questions the value of what Heartwood provides for our community.” He asked how much money the venue has raised privately to address the shortfall.

Carnes said they’ve only been a nonprofit since September, but they have a membership program for people who contribute $25 or more, and they’ve had corporate sponsors. She said their new Development Director is applying for a dozen grants a month.

Book asked again how much they’ve raised in the six months since becoming a nonprofit, and Carnes said she didn’t have that handy, but she said they have 50 members, various events have brought in about $60,000 in corporate sponsors, and they’ve received about $5,000 in grants. He asked Interim City Manager Andrew Persons about City funding sources, and Persons said PAPI is the main program for arts organizations. Persons said the Commission could provide direction “regarding broadening or… amending, restructuring our grant programs,” and that would be part of the budget process.

Book said he was trying to balance “a private request for monies, even though the organization has tremendous value, against the fact that there’s many, many needed organizations that have shortfalls all the time.”

Commissioner Bryan Eastman: “It’s exactly what you’re looking for in Gainesville — a historic building that has, you know, cool local businesses that really match the vibes overall of Gainesville with, you know, an incredible music venue that has… one of the best sound systems.”

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said he didn’t know if there were any improvements in the city “that I am quite as proud of… in the last decade as what’s happened in Heartwood. It’s exactly what you’re looking for in Gainesville — a historic building that has, you know, cool local businesses that really match the vibes overall of Gainesville with, you know, an incredible music venue that has… one of the best sound systems… It is a real benefit to the overall community.”

Eastman: “How do we make sure that there’s a fairness in it, even for a relatively small amount of money, that everyone feels like their tax dollars are being spent in a way that is open and transparent for the rest of the community to use?”

Eastman continued, “We’ve always been a very artistic community. We’ve always had a long history of having incredible music venues… We’ve lost a lot of our medium-sized venues over time… But to [Book’s] and the Mayor’s point, I struggle with… making sure that we’re supporting our institutions with how this structurally works… $50,000 is sort of a rounding error, even on the things that we’re voting on today within the budget. But also, how do we make sure that there’s a fairness in it, even for a relatively small amount of money, that everyone feels like their tax dollars are being spent in a way that is open and transparent for the rest of the community to use?… I’d like to keep having the discussion as to how exactly this can fit in there.”

Eastman asked Carnes if this was an emergency, and she said they won’t close tomorrow, but she’s expecting a shortfall by the end of the year, and “I don’t know where that extra $55,000 is going to come from if we don’t get support from the Commission. So, I mean, yeah, it’s a little dire. I don’t want to underplay it.” Responding to a question from Ward, she clarified that Heartwood’s fiscal year is the calendar year.

Commissioner Casey Willits: “100%, I think we need to restructure the PAPI grant… There’s not enough of an argument to exclude something like Heartwood from this.”

Commissioner Casey Willits said he wished he’d gone to see TopHouse at Heartwood on January 11, 2024: “I guess you can only brag about the shows you actually go to, and I missed that one… This is more of a medium-term planning [request]… like, ‘Where are we going to be eight months from now?’… I really appreciate that.” He said the PAPI grants basically go to three organizations (the Hippodrome, Dance Alive, and the Gainesville Orchestra): “It’s kind of locked in.” He said they would all like to have bigger grants and “would like it to be opened up in different ways… 100%, I think we need to restructure the PAPI grant… There’s not enough of an argument to exclude something like Heartwood from this.”

Willits: “To me, an orchestra is nothing more than a cover band, and so that’s why I would like to see PAPI restructured to make room for specifically this type of organization. It makes a lot of sense to me.”

Willits continued, “To me, an orchestra is a cover band unless someone is, you know, creating brand new music — which happens, they debut music… To me, an orchestra is nothing more than a cover band, and so that’s why I would like to see PAPI restructured to make room for specifically this type of organization. It makes a lot of sense to me.” He also said the grants should increase with inflation every year. 

Willits: “I think a decision of this size should not be made today. It should be made after our financial retreat.”

Willits supported “a one-time [grant]… to patch them through this year, on their way to… permanent success… I feel okay about the idea of that.” He said the City Commission’s financial retreat is coming up, so “we’ll know a little better about how we ended the last fiscal year, and so I think a decision of this size should not be made today. It should be made after our financial retreat.”

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut: “I would like for us to give the [City] Manager direction that we want to find funds. We want to find that $55,000.”

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said, “I would like for us to give the [City] Manager direction that we want to find funds. We want to find that $55,000.” She said she agreed with waiting until after the budget retreat, but she wanted to “make a commitment to fund it.”

Ward: “It might be that we can commission Heartwood to do some things that benefit the City of Gainesville’s overall mission and bring in funding to you to do things that are similar to what you already do.”

Ward said, “PAPI is not the only way that we can fund artists… There’s a way to create a new system that does not get in the middle of the [PAPI] system… I am supportive of directing the Manager’s office to create a way and give us advice on the best timing for that and the best structure that we could do… I am not trying to diminish what those other three organizations do, in the least. They are vital to our community. But there are other ways for the performing arts to be vital to our community that we have not done for the last 40 years… It might be that we can commission Heartwood to do some things that benefit the City of Gainesville’s overall mission and bring in funding to you to do things that are similar to what you already do… There are lots of ways to make this work, but I want us to be the kind of organization that doesn’t talk about the arts, but that participates in growing the arts.” He asked about Heartwood’s programs for young people.

Heartwood’s programs for young people

Carnes said Heartwood has a partnership with We Rock Gainesville, which is a “summer camp that uses music and performance to encourage self-esteem in girls and gender-nonconforming youth.” She said that program has a monthly open mic night, “and we provide this space for kids to come… And then we also have a program, we just partnered with Theater Connect, which is an LGBTQ youth theatre program, and they are using our space every other Tuesday,… and they have enjoyed the space so much, they’re expanding that program to do some cosplay karaoke nights… So we have a lot of programs like that, free programming that’s family-friendly.” She also listed a number of annual music festivals hosted by Heartwood and spoke about some programs aimed at university students.

Carnes said the “critical cash flow part of this” will probably hit in the early summer because they have to pay bands in advance, but the cash flow dries up in the summer.

Commissioner Ed Book: “I think it might not be wise at this point to say, ‘Find the money,’… because we… haven’t even had our first budgetary process yet.”

Book said he would support asking the City Manager to find ways to enter into contractual agreements to use the venue: “That’s a big difference from making an exception to our ongoing budgetary processes.” He also favored modifying the City’s existing grant process and added, “I don’t think, Commissioner Chestnut, we would direct the City staff. I think it might not be wise at this point to say, ‘Find the money,’… because we… haven’t even had our first budgetary process yet.”

Ward said he doesn’t make motions, but “the motion I would most like to support… is us directing the City Manager and staff to bring back options for us, in light of everything that they’ve heard so far today.”

Persons said Commissioners could “certainly provide direction to me,… and what we would likely do is pull that funding out of Excess Fund Balance and put it on a budget amendment.” He said the next budget amendment is scheduled for May 27, but they could do a standalone budget amendment if it’s more urgent. He said the Commission should give “clear direction about how the money should be spent — on what items.”

Motion

Eastman made a motion to refer the Heartwood Soundstage funding request and direct the City Manager to return after the budget retreat with options that fund defined public benefits and community access at Heartwood. Chestnut seconded the motion.

Willits said he would like to “grow the size of the pie” for PAPI and set it to increase every year with inflation: “That’s something we could hear in Finance Committee after the finance retreat.”

Chestnut said she wanted Carnes “to leave here today, knowing that something is going to come back before this Commission.”

Ward: “I don’t want us to throw money away. I am not advocating to just wildly spend money. But the difference between what we’re willing to do on a federal basis on the other side of the world and the microscope that we must put on things that improve our quality of life for us and our neighbors, is mind-blowing to me.”

Ward said he had a “final thought… We can’t avoid the world news, and it has been increasingly frustrating for me over the last few days, that if we want to have a war on the other side of the world, nobody will ask how much it costs. There’s no accounting for what a war costs. Somebody feels like we need to have a war, throw the money at it. But if we want to teach kids that music is good and give them the opportunity to hear things they might not hear in their home, it takes us the entire afternoon to get to the point of giving direction to maybe think about it. And that is true not only of the arts. It is true of feeding our neighbors and housing our neighbors and healing our neighbors and educating our neighbors. And I find that incredibly troubling. I don’t want us to throw money away. I am not advocating to just wildly spend money. But the difference between what we’re willing to do on a federal basis on the other side of the world and the microscope that we must put on things that improve our quality of life for us and our neighbors, is mind-blowing to me.”

Persons said that was “a tough act to follow,” but he said his staff could bring options back to the Commission in April.

The motion passed 5-0, with Ingle and Duncan-Walker absent.