Arts organizations who applied in 2023 for grants from Nashville’s Metro Arts Commission have waited months to receive half of the money they were promised. Now, a decision by the Metro Human Relations Commission (MHRC) makes it even less clear how much money each organization should expect.
On Monday evening, the MHRC responded to a formal complaint against Metro Arts and the Metro Department of Law from six Nashvillians affiliated with an activist group called Arts Equity Nashville. They alleged that Metro Arts promised them money last summer, then took it away in a move they have called racist and illegal. Thirty-two local artists have also signed on to the complaint making the same allegation.
After a months-long review of the complaint, the MHRC ruled the complainants had been discriminated against, and should be paid the money they were first promised. This could mean redirecting some of the money organizations are waiting for in order to pay the complainants.
“I emphatically, indubitably, without reservation find probable cause that there’s been discriminatory action here,” said Davie Tucker, the MHRC Executive Director, at the meeting announcing the recommendation.
The MHRC recommended that Metro Arts pay the complainants at the levels they were told they would receive in July.
“One fundamental principle (that) ought to be non-negotiable is that the complainants need to be made whole,” Tucker said.
But it’s unclear whether the MHRC’s recommendation will actually be put into practice. MHRC recommendations are not legally binding, and this one is directly at odds with the Metro Department of Law.
Metro Legal director Wally Dietz weighed in before the report was even released, writing an open letter to MHRC director Tucker on Thursday that doubled down on his belief that Metro Arts’ July 2023 funding decision was unconstitutional because it was justified based on race.
“The [funding] scenarios that were presented to the Commission in July by Arts staff did take race into account and racial impact was the predominant data point discussed prior to the vote,” Dietz wrote.
This is only the latest development in the chaotic and still unfinished 2023 Metro Arts funding cycle.
In July 2023, the Arts Commission voted to fund independent artists and small organizations at historic levels while cutting back on larger, more established organizations. But after the Metro Department of Law told them the decision was unconstitutional, the Commission rescinded its vote. In August, commissioners passed a new funding model that reversed course, funding larger organizations at their traditional levels, and using the money previously promised to smaller organizations and independent artists to do so.
The MHRC investigation is just one of a flurry of inquiries surrounding Metro Arts. Metro Finance and the city’s independent auditor are examining the arts department’s financial situation. And Metro Legal is currently investigating Metro Arts over allegations by staffers of workplace misconduct.
With two Metro departments at odds over the law, the Metro Arts Commission will need to decide whose advice to take — the MHRC or Metro Legal — when charting its path forward.
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