In collaboration with community partners, Broward County seeks to provide artistic, cultural, educational and recreational programs contributing to a vibrant, multicultural and economically viable community, delivering world-class recreational opportunities and promoting life-long learning opportunities for our residents and visitors.

Cultural

Cultural Division enhances the culture in the community through the development and stewardship of the arts. It promotes a diverse and inclusive environment, providing services that include public information, grants to cultural organizations and artists, the County's Public Art & Design and arts education and community engagement programs.

Cultural completed and installed eight public art projects in Broward County, including:

• “Cirri" sculpture by Denver-based artist Patrick Marold was installed in FLL's Terminal 2​
• “Kaleidoscope" sculpture by Rein Triefeldt at the Port Administration Building
• “Vista Unveiled" mural by Lek Jeyifous at the Port's Palm Parking Garage
• “As One" sculpture by artist Blessing Hancock in Park's Dillard Green Space

Other achievements include:

• Continuing virtual offerings and produced 38 virtual events/workshops and three in-person events, reaching more than 2,000 attendees.
• Developed and launched a new series of seven free business skills online seminars in English and Spanish for artists in the South Florida region with nearly 6,200 attendees.  
• Designed and implemented an online application process for the grant programs for FY2022. Worked with 54 citizen reviewers to adjudicate the new grants platform, consolidating nine funding programs to three.  

Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation Division continued to play a significant role in our community response to COVID-19 by hosting testing and/or vaccination operations at ten of our parks, a massive undertaking that entailed working closely with the Florida Department of Health-Broward and CDR Maguire.

Although the parks were focused on these efforts, many programs/events were successfully offered:

• AllGolf, a public/private partner at C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines, had its best year of attendance in FY2021 with nearly 105,000 guests.
• More than 85,000 people safely enjoyed the annual Holiday Fantasy of Lights at Tradewinds Park & Stables in Coconut Creek.
• A variety of national and international cricket and football events were hosted at Central Broward Park & Broward County Stadium.
• Virtual and drive-in events, as well as weekly check-in phone calls were provided, for seniors in communities served by Broward Municipal Service District neighborhood parks.

Projects completed:

• Broward County Parks is the first park system in the state to provide access to AIRA, a way-finding app giving individuals who are blind or have low vision real-time access to trained agents to help navigate within the park boundaries
  
• Construction of 4,300-square-foot nature center building and exhibit hall at Miramar Pineland for $2.9 million
  
• Completed a new 3,000-square-foot community center, playground and outdoor accessibility ramp at Sunview Park in Fort Lauderdale
  
• Through a collaboration with Public Works, installed solar canopy covering two parking lots at Paradise Cove and at Tropical Splash, providing electricity to operate the water parks at C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines and Central Broward Park & Broward County Stadium in Lauderhill
  
• Renovated the Anne Kolb Nature Center Observation Tower in Hollywood and added accessible telescopes
  
• Installed an electronic sign at Dillard Green Space in Fort Lauderdale providing information about free programs, activities and events offered by County agencies and partners
  
• Created a revenue-generating disc golf pro shop at Tradewinds Park & Stables in Coconut Creek
  
• Opened a Soccer 5 complex at ​Brian Piccolo Sports Park & Velodrome in Deerfield Beach
  
• Opened a new nature trail at Long Key Natural Area & Nature Center in Davie
  
• Created a butterfly garden, coordinated by volunteers, at West Lake Park in Hollywood

In collaboration with the Office of Public Communications, Parks completed the first episode in the Urban Oasis documentary series focusing on the Herman and Dorothy Shooster Nature Preserve in Margate. The short documentary highlights Parks' commitment to preserving natural areas and educational programs to encourage residents to embrace and engage Broward County's native lands

Libraries

After suspending indoor, in-person programs for several months, due to the pandemic, Broward County Libraries safely resumed programs at all 36 locations in FY2021. Due to popular demand, curbside service continues to operate, as well as online educational and recreational programs.

Libraries also continues to use social media messaging to interact and engage with the public, promoting events such as the 10th Annual South Florida Bookfest, an hybrid event that had more than 1,300 online and 72 in-person attendees.​

The migration to SirsiDynix Symphony Integrated Library System, a 21st-century cloud-based platform, provides a host of new capabilities to build upon in the coming years, including improved search capabilities and potential for future innovations.

American Libraries Association (ALA) selected Broward County Libraries to participate in a small cohort of public libraries in the multi-year grant project “Libraries Build Business." Broward County Libraries will assist ALA in determining which library-led entrepreneurship models best assist low income and/or underrepresented entrepreneurs.​​​