Funding Arts Broward Celebrates
Its First 10 FAB! Years
By Helene Eisenberg Foster

Painter and acclaimed local photographer Francie Bishop Good has inspired others with her artwork for years. She has exhibited her work in area galleries and has been active in the South Florida arts scene.  Along the way, Bishop Good was herself inspired by the generosity and accomplishments of the Funding Arts Network organization in Miami-Dade back in 2003.

Believing there was a need for a similar organization in Broward County, Bishop Good joined forces with fellow art aficionado Erica Hartman of Miami to create Funding Arts Broward Inc. – popularly known as FAB! Drawing on her creativity and Hartman’s organizational skills, they gathered about 15 people in a studio and were successful in pooling everyone’s resources to raise money for the arts and create an association that would continue to help the arts flourish in our area.

“This really was a reaction to the government cuts in the arts,” Bishop Good explains. “Each founding member of FAB! gave $1,000 and pledged that 100 percent of these membership dues would go to funding exhibitions and programs.”

Now FAB! is fully run by volunteers, boasts over 30 grantees and has more than 120 individual members and eight corporate members, according to Bishop Good.