(NASHVILLE) The Tennessee Arts Commission was awarded $474,000 in National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) federal CARES Act funds and will receive another $60,000 in federal CARES Act funds from South Arts, the regional arts agency for southern states. The Commission will re-grant 100% of the federal CARES funds totaling $534,000 to approximately 190 arts organizations and local government entities with a distinct arts focus across the state.

Federal CARES Funds

These federal CARES funds are intended to be distributed as broadly as possible to help save jobs in the nonprofit arts sector and keep the doors open to arts organizations that add value to Tennessee's economy and the creative life of our communities.

In an effort to expedite federal CARES funding and to ensure proper management of federal dollars, these funds will be re-granted directly, without separate application, to Tennessee organizations meeting all of the eligibility requirements below:

• are nonprofit arts organizations or local government entities with a distinct arts focus as defined by the Commission
• have applied for and will receive a competitive Annual grant award in FY2021
• have received Commission awards within one or more of the past three years (FY 2018, 2019 and/or 2020)

These non-matching award amounts are based on organization budget size with additional consideration for rural arts nonprofits.

If You Don't Apply For A Grant...You Won't Receive It!

Based on an earlier Tennessee Arts Commission' press release that included a long list of grant recipients, WGNS noticed that for Rutherford County only MTSU had received awards.

The radio station did an e-mail "REPLY" to that news release (Tennessee Arts Commission) to see why arts organizations in other counties were selected, but the only organization from Rutherford County in that release was MTSU.

We received a quick and honest reply: "No one applied."

CARES Funding

To spread CARES funding as broadly as possible, Tennessee arts organizations that win direct grants of $50,000 from the NEA will be excluded from the distribution of federal CARES funding through the Commission. The Commission has authorized allocations of CARES funds as shown below, with amounts to be adjusted based on the outcome of NEA direct grant awards, which the NEA indicates will be announced in late June 2020.