Metro Arts grants committee recommends $1.96 million in operating awards, OKs 75 Thrive projects; commissioners disclose conflicts

On Feb. 28, 2025, the Metro Arts Commission Grants & Funding Committee recommended funding for 94 operating grantees and 75 Thrive project awards and approved the minutes of its Feb. 13 meeting.

The committee’s interim executive director, Ashley Batchelder, told members that staff completed technical reviews, held panel orientations and two days of panel scoring, and that 18 community panelists reviewed applications. She said staff used the panel scores and the commission’s funding formulas to generate award recommendations and that the commission plans to notify awardees within 48 hours of the full commission’s decision on Monday, with contracting and disbursement to follow; Batchelder said contracting typically takes four to six weeks and staff will hire temporary legal/paralegal support to manage that workload.

Legal counsel Tessa reviewed conflict-of-interest rules drawn from Metro code and ethics training, telling commissioners they must disclose relationships that could create actual bias or the appearance of bias and that when a conflict exists staff will remove the affected applicant from a blanket or group vote and bring that applicant up for a separate vote. Tessa said the conflicts form is a public record and advised erring on the side of over-reporting. The committee applied that approach: several organizations were pulled from group votes for separate consideration when commissioners reported recusal-worthy ties (for example, Tennessee Performing Arts Center and Belcourt Theatre were removed for individual votes when recusal was declared).

Batchelder summarized the review work: staff performed…