By Natalia Vega-Acevedo, Nova Southeastern University

Some weekends, Gary Schweikhart might sit in a darkened theater in South Florida, program open in his hands, watching another local production unfold onstage. It may be the third show he watched this week; a normal pace for someone who has spent about two decades advocating for the region’s arts scene. At 74, Schweikhart still moves through South Florida’s theaters and venues with the urgency of someone who believes in the work and the artists behind it. 

“I love pointing at that and saying, ‘look at that,’ because they’re worth being looked at,” said Schweikhart.

Schweikhart is the president of the Carbonell Awards, South Florida’s annual honors recognizing excellence in theater, and the founder of Public Relations by Schweikhart (PR-BS), a public relations firm he started more than 25 years ago. Over his career, he has represented dozens of nonprofits, cultural and arts organizations, helping them gain recognition and visibility in an area often overlooked in national arts conversations. 

Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Schweikhart began his career far from Florida. He worked as a theater reviewer for a few years, got involved in radio, and later made the move to San Francisco. For his first three years there, he served as a managing editor of one of the Bay Area’s largest LGBTQ newspapers before transitioning into retail public relations. He was then recruited to work for Office Depot in South Florida, made that move in 1991, where he did that until 2000, and then started his own public relations firm. However, it was not as easy as it seemed. He admits that he resisted the move to South Florida at first.

“Well, I dreaded moving to Florida,” stated Schweikhart. “And in fact, even though I had accepted a job at Office Depot, I was scrambling up until the day before I flew here to try to find a job in San Francisco.”

What he did not expect was that he had found a home for his profession. After leaving Office Depot, Schweikhart launched PR-BS in 2001, specializing in nonprofit and cultural clients. His first client was the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, setting up the tone for a career centered on arts advocacy. 

That commitment deepened in recent years, thanks to the Cultural Council and the Kravis Center in Palm Beach, when Schweikhart stepped into a leadership role, joining the board for the Carbonell Awards. During this period, there was a lot of upheaval following COVID-19 and public criticism over diversity and representation. Using his experience in crisis management, he helped restructure the organization’s judging and governance processes. 

“People want to be listened to,” said Schweikhart. “They want to feel like they’re being heard; that their concerns are being acknowledged.”

Since implementing reforms in 2022, the Carbonell Awards have seen more diverse nominees and winners, reflecting a broader range of theaters and performers across South Florida. Schweikhart admits that the work needed to improve further is still in progress. It may not be perfect, but it is necessary. 

The path to get there was not easy. A defining moment in his leadership role came unexpectedly in 2021. A speeding car crashed through the walls of his home office, pinning him beneath it, leaving him hospitalized for days, with a few spent in a coma. As he recovered from multiple surgeries, Schweikhart redirected his focus towards producing the Carbonell Awards’ first live ceremony since the pandemic, which took place in November of 2022.

“But it was great for me,” he stated. “It was probably better for me than for anybody else, because it gave me something to really concentrate on and to work towards.”

The accident allowed him to scale back his PR business and devote most of his time to the Carbonell Awards. This was a shift that Schweikhart described as life-changing. 

Despite his long résumé, Schweikhart is reluctant to frame his work as legacy-building. 

“I don’t think they’re gonna remember me at all. I couldn’t care less if they do,” stated Schweikhart. “But I want them to be aware of the amazing quality and quantity of first-rate cultural offerings in South Florida.” 

For Schweikhart, the mission remains simple: to keep pointing, advocating, and to keep showing up in the audience. 

“We have great theater in South Florida,” he stated. “People [are] like, ‘Oh, you got to go to Broadway.’ ‘Gotta go to London to see a fabulous show.’ No, you don’t.”

South Florida’s cultural landscape includes more than three dozen professional theaters, alongside independent companies and community-based organizations producing work that reflects the region’s diversity and artistic range. Audiences do not need to travel to Broadway or London’s West End to experience high-caliber productions.