In a “tight” budget year, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is asking most city departments to trim their budgets by 1.4%. That’s especially challenging for Metro Arts, which would need a big increase to accommodate a record number of applications for grant funding.
The scenario could lead to a repeat of the agency’s chaotic 2023 funding cycle: delays, rancorous debate about how to divide a very small pie, and artists left in the dark about when, or if, they would be paid.
During last year’s cycle, a record number of artists and organizations applied for Metro Arts grant money, and the $5.4 million the city gave the department didn’t include enough for all those new requests. In the end, Metro Council gave the Arts Commission an extra $2 million, but that was still over a million dollars short of the demand.
Right now, Metro Arts is still recovering. Arts organizations, and some independent artists, are still waiting for some of the money they were promised – over a month after Metro Finance Director Kevin Crumbo took over the Metro Arts budget and promised to make these groups whole. The department has delayed considering this year’s grant applications, likely until the fall.
This year, the financial squeeze is shaping up to be even tighter. There are even more arts grant applicants, and a flat total budget – $5.4 million, like last year, but without the extra $2 million from council.
This leaves artists and arts organizations confused and concerned about how much money they should expect from Metro Arts this year.
“Even though we did try to program a conservative season, our season is still predicated on some Metro Arts funding,” said a staffer from a performing arts organization who asked not to be named because of online vitriol surrounding the Metro Arts situation. “Did we budget too much, too little? Hard to say. We budgeted a 31% decrease, but I have no clue if that is reasonable or not.”
Councilwoman Joy Styles of District 32 says she will advocate for more arts funding as council revises the mayor’s proposed budget. Still, she estimates being able to redirect, at most, $1.3 million — less than last year’s $2 million.
Styles says she doesn’t buy the mayor’s explanation for refusing to increase the Arts budget — that things are tight across the board.
“This department has been underfunded for over 20 years,” she said. “Riddle me this, Batman: How do we think the solution is to punish the (artists and organizations) that have already been punished since last summer, that still don’t have the money that they were promised?”
Adding to the confusion is a rift between some Metro Arts staffers and the department’s director, Daniel Singh, who is away on medical leave. Several arts commissioners say they support firing Singh, and last week the commission selected Paulette Coleman as interim director.
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