Some Nashville artists will get additional payments, resolving a discrimination complaint against Metro Arts

Nashville’s Metro Human Relations Commission (MHRC) has approved a resolution to a Title VI discrimination complaint filed last fall against Metro Arts. But some of the complainants say they’re still not satisfied.

The complaint came from artists and activists who felt Metro Arts discriminated against them last summer when it approved historically high grants to individual artists only to backtrack and redirect some of that money to large arts organizations. In March, the MHRC agreed that Metro Arts’ change in grant funding formulas was discriminatory. Compared with arts organizations, individual artists are more likely to be people of color, and to come from other marginalized communities.

The resolution included a commitment by Metro Arts to continue supporting projects by individual artists.

Metro Finance and Metro Legal also agreed to give over $500,000 in additional payments to artists who weren’t paid during last year’s grant funding cycle. That money will go to muralists, plus small arts organizations who were eligible for two kinds of grants but were only approved for one.

Some complainants, like poet and activist Christine Hall, wanted more concessions. Hall felt that Metro Legal pressured Metro Arts to reverse course on grant funding last summer, and wanted the agency to admit fault.

“They point at BIPOC leaders and pick out these small failings. And then they go and they fail in big ways and they won’t even admit to that,” she said.

But Metro Human Relations Commissioner Charles Traughber urged his colleagues to accept the resolution because it included monetary concessions to the artists.

“If you’re thinking about it in sports terms, this wasn’t a blowout win, but sometimes you don’t need a blowout win. A win is a win,” he said.

The MHRC could have rejected the deal and held a public fact-finding hearing instead. However, according to Traughber, the commission does not have the authority to assign legal penalties during its hearings.

In a roll call vote, all but one commissioner voted for the plan.