The Nashville arts community got some devastating news from Metro Arts yesterday. The city department likely won’t give out any grant money to artists or organizations until 2025. Metro Arts staff says it needs time to come up with a new grant scoring policy and to figure out how to manage its Thrive program for independent artists in a way that does not violate state law.
It was news many artists were dreading, but it wasn’t a total surprise. Last year’s grant funding cycle was a disaster, with two competing funding formulas and a bureaucratic tug of war between Metro Legal, Metro Arts and Metro Finance that left artists waiting for their money for months.
Metro Arts staff says it’s totally overhauling the grant application and scoring system to prevent these things from happening again. The new system will distribute funding based on qualities like artistic excellence and commitment to racial and economic equity — a departure from the old funding model which gave different amounts based on the size of an organization’s budget. Developing that new system will take time; it will likely be fall 2025 when more funding goes out.
For now, that means anyone who applied for funding this year will have their applications canceled and will need to reapply in 2025. That means a tough year for arts nonprofits with tight margins. At a grants committee meeting this week, Arts Commissioner Tim Jester addressed those applicants directly.
“For those listening that are discouraged or angry or sad that applications are being canceled, we’re sorry about that,” he said. “We will do our best to manage Metro Arts in a way moving forward where we don’t end up in this position again.”
The department has yet to say what it’ll do with the $3 million the city has already given them to fund arts grants this year. Meanwhile, Metro Arts says it will continue hosting its monthly networking events with artists and posting outside funding opportunities on social media.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM