As we wrote earlier this year, state arts agencies are pursuing a wide range of programs to ensure that folk and traditional artists are well-supported within their state. This month, NASAA features two more states that are employing powerful strategies to promote the preservation, transmission and creation of folk and traditional arts. The Nebraska Arts…
State arts agencies play a vital role in promoting arts opportunities in rural communities that, while rich in cultural assets and traditions, may face geographic or economic barriers to arts development. The Oklahoma Arts Council and the Tennessee Arts Commission recently launched new grant programs designed to advance rural development through the arts, culture and…
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) contains nearly $200 billion in emergency funding for states and territories to support a continued public health response, build infrastructure and promote equitable recovery. This state-led funding gives states and territories the ability to use these dollars in the ways that are most effective for each state. As with the…
The Tennessee Arts Commission launched a new funding opportunity for nonprofit organizations and local governments to help mitigate the devastating impact of the pandemic on Tennessee’s civic life and creative economy. The COVID-19 Arts Resilience Grant provides nonmatching funds ranging up to $5,000 for projects occurring from December 5, 2020, to June 15, 2021. The…
With a $1 million Civil Monetary Penalty grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Tennessee Department of Health, the Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC) is implementing Music & Memory Tennessee, a model therapeutic-music program that will serve at least 2,200 patients in 147 nursing homes over the next three years. Music &…
Creative Aging Tennessee is an initiative to improve older adults’ health and well-being through the arts. By leveraging resources from an unusual partnership of three state agencies—the Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC), the Tennessee Department of Health and the Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability—the program helps address the needs of Tennessee’s growing population of residents aged 60…
A perennial goal of state arts agencies is to improve their engagement with and support of underserved communities. Geographic isolation, economic distress and other factors can be roadblocks for some constituents, especially those in rural areas. Recognizing the long-term impacts of such impediments, some state arts agencies have developed programs that focus especially on reaching…
Students from Bradley Academy, an arts-integrated public school, provide an opening performance at the Arts Education Policy Convening. Photo by Bradley Hanson As part of its annual conference this year, the Tennessee Arts Commission hosted a day-long, participant-driven Arts Education Policy Convening. The Commission organized the event for arts-education stakeholders from…
The Tennessee Arts Commission has launched a new agency brand reflecting what it learned from constituents through its most recent strategic planning process. While developing its 2015 – 2019 plan, Cultivating the Arts in Tennessee, the Commission heard from artists, arts organizations and other stakeholders that it is paramount both to demonstrate the public value…
Through a new series of Arts and Inclusion (A&I) Conversations, the Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC) is working with another state agency, the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities, to increase participation and inclusion in the arts for all Tennesseans. The conversations, coordinated and facilitated by the Council on Developmental Disabilities, bring together representatives of local disability…
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