Cultural Master Plan

Foreword – Message from Mayor Scholl

Since its inception nineteen years ago, the City of Sunny Isles Beach had to be built from the ground up. Initially by focusing on providing essential services like policing and code enforcement. Then by constructing infrastructure like parks, a school and library, government and community center. The City’s Cultural & Community Services Department has consistently risen to the occasion as the City grew and became more diverse by creating wonderful programming for these facilities. But now, with the creation of this plan, the City is ready to take its next step in its quest to improve the quality of life for our citizens.

Last year the City Commission in partnership with the Sunny Isles Beach Foundation made a decision to create a more formal vision for arts and culture in the City. The goal is to create a greater sense of community identity, to leverage arts for creative place-making, and enhance the overall quality of life that bridges all divides in our extremely diverse population, and crosses all demographics. In furtherance of that goal, we engaged world-wide experts in the field of cultural planning, AEA Consulting, to evaluate our programming, survey our residents and businesses alike, examine our capital infrastructure and do some organizational planning. At the heart of this plan is a shared belief that the arts are an essential part of the engine for the creation of community, quality of life and overall sense of well-being.

It is with great pride and pleasure that I submit the City’s first cultural master plan. This strategic plan is the result of nine months of community discussion and outreach through surveys, individual meetings, brainstorming and strategy sessions. I thank all the citizens who participated in this effort.

The results you find inside this plan in many ways support much of what we have already done over the last nineteen years, but they also challenge and inspire us to undertake new and innovative programming and efforts to continue to grow in artistic and cultural vibrancy, to invest further in beautifying our public spaces, to engage creative people in the community locally and at large, and further propel a unique identity for our City.

I invite you to read our first Cultural Master Plan, join the effort and identify the ways in which you may wish to get involved.

We are working to make our Cultural Master Plan accessible to everyone. Until then, you can request a copy of the plan by submitting a Public Records Request.