The Metro Arts Commission held its July meeting on 2024-07-18 at 12:11 PM. The meeting included public comment, approval of minutes, a detailed internal audit presentation, a vote on a conciliation agreement with the Metro Human Relations Commission (MHRC), presentation of the FY25 budget, and committee updates. The commission voted unanimously to accept the conciliation agreement in principle.
All right. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our July meeting of the Metro Arts Commission. Um call us to order at 1211. Again, welcome and welcome to all of our um visitors and our audience. We do have a full agenda today, and so um I would just ask that people be reminded and be mindful of um their time. Uh be mindful of um during public comment, you know, sticking to your two minutes because we do have a lot to handle today, and we want to make sure that we are respectable respective of everyone's time. I do want to welcome one of our new commissioners, Mr. Evan Brown. Do you want to introduce yourself or say anything on the record for us? Um what time is it? Good evening after uh afternoon, everybody. Uh Evan Brown, uh, independent curator gallerist uh here in Nashville, uh work with Self for Artists and and uh some community partners here in Nashville. So I'm excited to be on the board and uh thank you to you all for having me. Thank you so much. I do want to do um a land acknowledgement. I've been working through this, and I said this um in um in the executive board meeting, but I do want to kind of tweak our our land acknowledgement a little bit, but until we figure what that looks like, I'll do this land acknowledgement. We acknowledge that we are on the the traditional land of an indigenous people who have lived and cared for this land for generations. We pay our respects to their elders, present, past, and emerging, and recognize their enduring connection to this land, water, and community. So now it's public comment period, and um before I turn it over to um Vivian to do our time and let us know who's all on um in the queue for public comment. Just understand that we do have two minutes and we are trying to stick to that those two minutes, and um you had to sign up prior um to coming in here. We will have a total of 20 minutes for all public comment. Um hold on cheer. All right, so um Vivian, um, how are we ready for public comment? Yes. Okay, if you are who's first on the list. First, we have Ms. Lydia Yusuf. Okay. And remember to hit the green um button so that people online can hear you. Okay, perfect. It's already on. All right, thank you. I'll let you know when your time starts, and I'll also let you know when you have one minute. Okay. Your time starts now. As one of the Title VI complainants, I just want to vocalize that this is not conciliation. The issue that happened last year was about discrimination and the potential lawsuit that happened because of that discrimination against working class artists against the will of the council, the people, and several BIPOC and allied commissioners and the director. It was not about the application or the artists and their projects. My thoughts on this agreement were recorded at the MHRC meeting last week alongside three of the complaintants. So I'm not gonna take up too much time on that. But I will say one of the failures of this agreement is to protect Thrive and our tax dollars. Truly progressive cities like Charleston, Durham, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Portland, Chicago, and more uh and more fund their artists directly. They even fund festivals and cultural events. Why? Because direct funding to artists benefits the economy and the community. I spoke to a Thrive recipient who, with her 10,000, paid out 28 local artists for multiple re events in north and east Nashville. When there's an investment locally, that money stays local and builds Nashville. Local artists collaborate and reinforce an ecosystem and culture of belonging and inclusion. That multimillion dollar institution simply cannot. Dozens of hands went into the air.