For months, Metro Nashville’s arts agency has faced scrutiny from multiple angles: a review from the city auditor, a workplace misconduct investigation, and a finding that their 2023 funding cycle discriminated against some applicants. And over the past two weeks, staffers have had the responsibility to run Metro Arts on a daily basis without their leader.
Metro Arts Executive Director Daniel Singh has not reported for work, in-person or remotely, since Feb. 23. On Feb. 23 and Feb. 26, he sent messages to the Metro Arts staff saying he was out sick. On Feb. 27, he sent another message saying he would take a few more sick days. Staffers have received no communications from him since then, and no information about when he plans to return.
“It has been a challenging time, and we hope Director Singh is able to get the rest he needs to be well. The staff will carry on the work of Metro Arts while he is away,” said Metro Arts communications manager Daryn Jackson in response to questions from WPLN News this week.
While Singh has been unavailable to his staff, he has attended two public meetings. He spoke at a Metro Council committee meeting on Feb. 26 and was in the audience at Monday’s Metro Human Relation Commission meeting. He also emailed a group of Metro Arts board members on Monday night.
In a statement emailed to WPLN News on Wednesday, Singh said that he is taking sick leave in response to what he sees as racism.
“The racist behavior of the Metro Government has affected my health,” he wrote. “I attended the Council and MHRC meetings under great duress because I want to show up for the antiracist artists who are fighting for their rights to be funded equitably.”
Singh’s absence comes at a critical moment for Metro Arts. On top of multiple investigations, the agency also has a busy lineup of public art projects for spring 2024, and their 2024-25 grant funding cycle is underway — well over 200 artists and arts organizations have applied for funding this year.
“To his credit, Director Singh has assembled a pretty terrific staff,” said Heather Lefkowitz, chair of the Metro Arts Commission’s new Oversight Committee. “My sense is when we have these moments of crisis, it’s really important to have leadership and vision. And it is very difficult at this juncture if there’s not that leadership, if the director is not there.”
Singh also claims that his Metro Arts staff has been “weaponized” by other Metro leaders involved in the overlapping investigations of the agency. “I am protecting my health from this toxic behavior,” he wrote.
Singh’s claim echoes a comment made on Monday by Davie Tucker, the executive director of the Metro Human Relations Commission. Tucker alleged that the Metro Department of Law had manipulated a group of Metro Arts employees to file a workplace misconduct complaint against him. Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz has vehemently denied the allegation, saying he had no role in precipitating the ongoing workplace misconduct investigation involving Metro Arts.
“I have found [Metro Arts] staff members to be very dedicated and trustworthy, and they’re trying to do their job,” Lefkowitz said. “To imply that they don’t have agency or to imply that they are just being used in some way, that they don’t have ideas of their own, that their voices are co-opted is pretty astonishing to me.”
Lefkowitz says the Oversight Committee meeting planned for this coming Monday will be replaced by a meeting of the full Metro Arts Commission. She says a discussion of Singh’s absence will be on the agenda.
Singh’s full statement to WPLN News:
· I am entitled to and am on sick leave. CDC says Racism has a direct impact on the health of BIPOC Communities. The racist behavior of the Metro Government has affected my health. Your privilege is what lets you ask me about my sick leave use. At the 3-4-24 MHRC meeting, Rev Tucker talked about how metro arts staff have been weaponized. I am protecting my health from this toxic behavior.
· I attended the Council and MHRC meetings under great duress because I want to show up for the antiracist artists who are fighting for their rights to be funded equitably.
· Notified staff and all appropriate entities about my sick leave.
· Fully committed to an antiracist vision for metro arts. The real question here is will the Mayor and Council fund Metro Arts at the requested 1% of Nashville’s budget as they promised during their campaign?
· My management of staff is repeatedly being undermined by several racist Metro Agencies. Understandably that has a toll on my health.
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