TAC Creative Placemaking Grant

TAC Creative Placemaking Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Tennessee Arts Commission
Amount: US $3,000 - US $30,000
Last Updated: December 10, 2025

Summary

The TAC Creative Placemaking grant aims to enrich Tennessee's local character through arts and culture. It supports projects that enhance community identity and promote economic development. Applicants can request up to $30,000, with a required cash or in-kind match. The program encourages collaboration among various sectors to create vibrant community spaces. Notably, schools and ongoing arts programming are ineligible for funding, ensuring resources are directed toward innovative, transformative projects.

Overview

Creative Placemaking The Creative Placemaking (CP) grant is designed to help communities enhance the distinctive local character of Tennessee places for positive economic and community outcomes. Successful CP applications will demonstrate how proposed projects will materially improve the physical and social character of their neighborhoods, districts, municipalities, or regions through arts and cultural activities or assets. Funding will depend upon an application’s rating from the review process and the total amount of funds available to the Tennessee Arts Commission for grant allocation. In addition to merit ratings, the Commission seeks a diversity of project designs, locations and community settings across Tennessee for CP projects. This category is competitive. What is Creative Placemaking? The Commission believes that creativity is a catalyst for innovation, entrepreneurship and invention. Many organizations, businesses and local governments collaborate to reinvest in and revitalize their communities, and the arts often represent a way to cultivate and capitalize upon creativity with lasting economic benefits. In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, nonprofit and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, city or region around arts and cultural activities or assets. Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business visibility and public safety, and brings diverse people together to build shared understanding of culture and community. Examples of projects or activities may include but are not limited to: Arts used as a catalyst to revitalize downtowns or neighborhoodsDevelopment of an arts or cultural business incubator or apprenticeship programTransformation of a perceived community liability into a community asset through the artsDevelopment of an activity or project that encourages greater engagement with the arts in state parks, farmer’s markets, or other natural, unique ecological or recreational assets To increase the likelihood of success and sustainability, the Commission encourages communities to involve public, private (including nonprofit organizations) and institutional partners in the development of a CP grant proposal.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Applicants may request up to $30,000 for projects that occur in one place. Applications that involve partnerships of two or more towns, cities and/or counties can request up to $30,000.Applications must clearly show a 1:4 cash or in-kind match commitment by the applicant. That is, for every $4 of Commission funding requested, the grantee must provide a minimum of $1.The lead applicant is eligible to apply if the organization meets one of the following qualifications:The organization is an entity of local government or regional quasi-governmental entity (development district, human resource agency, etc.) The applicant is a nonprofit organization legally chartered in Tennessee and in possession of a determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service declaring the organization exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code

Ineligibility

Schools, colleges and universities are ineligible to serve as lead applicants, although they would be welcome as partners.The following is ineligible:Operating support for arts organizations or ongoing arts programming.Marketing and promotional materialsStandard Commission funding restrictions. However, for the CP grant category only, costs for equipment, if integral to the project, are allowableArts organizations that receive revenue from a “New Specialty Earmarked Plate” under T.C.A 55-4-215 (a) (1) are ineligible for Commission grant funding.