Osceola County is directing $5 million in tourist tax dollars toward capital improvements at local cultural facilities, giving museums, arts centers and similar venues a chance to expand, renovate and modernize.
“Arts and culture are essential to a growing, thriving community,” said Osceola County District 2 Commissioner Viviana Janer. “This is more than an investment in facilities; it is an investment in the vitality of our community, the experiences we create for residents and visitors, and the cultural legacy we leave for generations to come.”
The new Cultural Facilities Grant Program will not pay for programming or performances. Instead, it will support infrastructure— facility expansions and renovations, HVAC and other building systems, accessibility improvements, and repairs.
The $5 million comes from Osceola County’s tourist development tax—that 6% “bed tax” visitors pay on hotel rooms and short-term rentals. It’s restricted money, meaning it can only be spent on things that boost tourism, and Florida law specifically allows it for cultural facilities like museums and arts centers when they draw visitors and stay open to the public.
Collections of these funds have been strong in recent years, topping $80 million annually, and Experience Kissimmee already steers a good chunk of it toward local nonprofits for cultural and historical projects—more than $4.7 million over the last two fiscal years alone, including help for places like Osceola Arts.
The county has also put TDT dollars into bigger tourism projects such as sports facilities and a planned performing arts center. So this new grant sits alongside marketing, sports venues, infrastructure and other quality-of-life spending that all compete for the same visitor-generated tax dollars.
The grant will be administered by United Arts of Central Florida, a local nonprofit organization that serves to enrich communities by strengthening the arts, culture, history, and science, according to the organization’s president, Jennifer Evins.
“We don’t create art—we make art possible,” she said. And that’s precisely what the new program is intended to do.
“Osceola County is an incredible destination for visitors, and its local economy is strong,” Evins said. “But the arts have not had the opportunity to keep up as it relates to facilities. Whether it’s the Osceola History Society or the Osceola Arts Center, there’s just been a lack of major capital investment by the public sector.”
While this grant is new, United Arts’ involvement in Osceola County is not. For years, the organization has funded a teaching-artist program that brings creative industry professionals into high school classrooms; helped Title I schools take students on arts and cultural field trips; supported individual artists; and backed the Kissimmee-based Escuela de Bomba y Plena Tata Cepeda, which introduces children to Afro-Latin heritage through workshops and school programs.
“So really, we do arts education, we do individual artists, and this [grant] kind of brings in where the impact can be really made, and that’s in helping arts nonprofits build their capacity,” Evins said.
The grant program opened September 1, and Evins said her organization is poised to help applicants throughout the process.
“We will hold workshops for people that want to know how to write the grant,” she said. “We provide technical support all the way up until it’s due, because our job is to make sure that these applications are successful and meet the criteria.”
United Arts is also looking to recruit volunteers to serve on grants panels.
“If people want to get involved in having a voice on how these dollars are invested, then we welcome people to serve on these volunteer panels,” Evins said. Osceola County residents who want to volunteer for the panels will be trained, so experience is not required.
The grant application window closes Oct. 16, 2026, and award announcements are expected to take place in January 2027.
