The Tennessee Arts Commission awarded $175,000 in grant funding for the inaugural Tennessee Arts & Rural Health Initiative, a one-time pilot program supporting arts-based projects designed to improve health and wellness outcomes in rural Tennessee hospitals. For this funding, $75,000 came from the National Endowment for the Arts, $90,000 from state funds and an additional $10,000 from the commission’s Targeted Arts Development Initiative to support a project serving Hancock County, which is designated as distressed by the Appalachian Regional Commission.
The initiative, a collaboration between the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Tennessee Hospital Association, approved 10 grants statewide to support programs serving patients, their families and hospital staff. The grants are distributed across Tennessee’s three grand divisions, with four awarded in West Tennessee, three in Middle Tennessee and three in East Tennessee. High demand in the program’s first year led commission staff to request additional state funding to reach the final $175,000 total.
The pilot program funds new or expanded arts and health initiatives in rural hospitals. Eligible applicants included nonprofit hospitals, arts and non-arts organizations, and government entities that partnered with a rural hospital. The arts commission worked with the hospital association to promote the funding opportunity statewide.
Projects are scheduled to begin in January 2026 and will conclude by June 2026.
Fy26 grant awards include:
EAST
- Erlanger Bledsoe Hospital — Bledsoe County
- Fort Loudoun Medical Center (Covenant Health Fort Loudoun) — Loudon County
- Hancock County Hospital (Wellmont Health System) — Hancock County
MIDDLE
- Ascension Saint Thomas Stones River Hospital — Cannon County
- Macon County General Hospital Inc. — Macon County
- Unity Medical Center — Coffee County
WEST
- Arts in McNairy for Magnolia Regional Health Center Selmer — McNairy County
- Hardin Medical Center — Hardin County
- Ascension Saint Thomas Three Rivers Hospital (Humphreys County Government) — Humphreys County
- Main Street Lawrenceburg for Southern Tennessee Regional Health System — Lawrence County
