NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — OZ Arts Nashville, known for bringing cutting-edge performances to Middle Tennessee, is grappling with a major financial setback after federal arts grants that had already been promised were suddenly canceled earlier this year.
At OZ Arts Nashville, crews are already gearing up for the next show — getting the space ready, laying down floors and focusing lights. The organization supports local artists in Nashville and Middle Tennessee while also working with international artists. This year, they're featuring artists from six continents.
But behind the scenes, Mark Murphy, executive and artistic director, says the organization is dealing with something unprecedented.
"After having announced grants in early 2025, we were very surprised in the spring, late spring, to find out that an entire round of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts had been withdrawn, basically canceled," Murphy said. "And this is unprecedented. It hasn't happened before."
Murphy says several Tennessee organizations lost federal funding — OZ Arts among them.
"This is virtually all grants for arts organizations in that round of funding, and there's more than 40 organizations in Tennessee that are impacted by this," Murphy said.
For OZ Arts, the loss was significant. The $45,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts was the largest one that OZ Arts had received, and is actually the largest one to a single organization in the state.
Murphy says the money would have reimbursed projects that were already underway — leaving the organization scrambling to fill the gap.
"In our case, the grant was for projects that were already underway, and some had been completed," Murphy said. "So the funding was expected to reimburse expenses we have for projects in January and February."
Supporters are stepping up, but OZ has still been forced to scale back programming.
"We have had to scale back some of the programming as a result of the loss of funding," Murphy said.
And bringing in international artists is only getting harder — visa processing costs have nearly quadrupled.
"Because of cuts at the State Department, it takes so long to get a visa petition approved that it's almost essential that you pay an extra amount for premium processing," Murphy said. "And that used to be about $750, it's now $2,800 for each petition, and usually for a dancer theater company, there's two petitions, so that adds up a lot."
Still, Murphy says their work won't stop — and hopes Tennesseans continue showing up for the arts.
OZ Arts says despite the funding loss, performances will go on as planned. The organization is also encouraging supporters to give during the end-of-year season to help make up the gap.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
In this job, we have the opportunity to meet truly remarkable people. The Sullivan family has faced incredibly tough times, but time and time again, turn their grieving into giving. What an honor to tell their story.
- Carrie Sharp
