Three management-level staff members at Metro Arts stepped down at an Arts Commission meeting Thursday. One by one, Communications Manager Daryn Jackson, Public Art Manager Jessica Ingram, and Finance and Operations Director Christiana Afotey announced their resignations. The commissioners barely reacted, other than thanking the staff members for their work.
Metro Arts is no stranger to turnover. The department has its third executive director in two years. The most recent, Daniel Singh, resigned after months of grant payment delays. And most of the commissioners were appointed this year.
That leaves the Nashville arts department without key staff members at a moment when the future of its grant programs is up in the air.
Metro Arts is in the middle of completely overhauling its Thrive program, which funds independent artists and projects. Thrive involves direct payments from the city government to individuals, a practice that Metro Finance believes may violate state law. A working group from Metro Arts, Metro Finance, Metro Legal and the Metro Human Relations Commission is currently developing a plan to manage the program legally. The group has a Jan. 6, 2025, deadline for sharing its plan with the Arts Commission.
Metro Arts operating grants, which fund arts nonprofits, face an uncertain future as well. At a Grants Committee meeting earlier this week, Arts staff and commissioners announced plans to redesign the grants’ scoring system. Under that plan, everyone who applied for funding this year would be forced to reapply once the new system is finalized.
But at Thursday’s meeting, some commissioners said they were considering another option as well: sticking with the current system and making funding decisions much more quickly. Metro Arts staffers have not yet spoken publicly on the feasibility or timeline of this alternate plan.
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