After Metro Arts lost half its staff, the city’s diversity leaders lay out a blueprint to recover from harm

Nashville’s arts department wants to expose and address inequities in their leadership, practices and policies, according to a public equity statement the agency published years ago.

Now, Metro Arts is being put to the test on how it handles allegations from women of color about a toxic work environment.

In the last 11 months, half of Metro Arts employees have left.

The city agency’s goal is to make sure all Nashvillians have access to the arts. And they’ve volunteered to make sure equity is at the heart of their decisions.

But former employees say the organization’s internal culture doesn’t live up to its public statements.

Andrea Blackman is the city’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. She says the department needs to get on the same page about what some of these lofty goals look like in real life.

“If that is not going to be the framework from which this department operates, then we have a larger problem at hand,” Blackman says at a commission meeting in late June. “I think that has to be recognized before the next executive director comes in.”

The last executive director resigned after being accused of retaliation and tokenism.

The monthly meetings aren’t streamlined online, and there isn’t a chance for residents to speak during public comment or watch it unfold online. 

Some Nashville residents complain the lack of feedback in real time is a part of the problem, which causes them to lose trust without the transparency. During the meeting, commissioners raised questions about how to respond to the individual emails they’ve received and the challenges it poses not having a unified response.

The agency’s chair says they want to ask the CARE committee the best practices for creating protocol, but she isn’t opposed to borrowing rules from the city’s other commissions.

Five recommendations from the city’s DEI team 

• Examine leadership and ensure it aligns with goals from community and staff
• CARE, Metro Arts and department need to coordinate better
• Define DEI language and vision
• Establish roles, authority and develop accountability for staff
• Accountability and conflict resolution