North Nashville Arts Coalition

About the Organization

Organization category

Public Charity

Country / State

United States / Tennessee

Mission

To invest in, nurture, and advance BIPOC artists in north Nashville by providing access and opportunity to equitably thrive.

Programs or services

NNAC Programs and Services

Jefferson Street Art Crawl / North Nashville Culture Crawl
NNAC’s founding program, now in its 10th year. An annual multi-venue arts festival open to all, centering artists from North Nashville’s historically Black community across 20+ activations and venues.

Mobile Ink Link
A traveling arts studio that brings free, hands-on art-making to families and youth at major community festivals throughout Nashville.

37208 Creates
NNAC’s storefront program at 100 Taylor Street giving artists space to share and sell their work or meet with clients, in exchange for a small percentage donated back to the organization.

Portfolio Day
A professional development program supporting member artists in building and presenting their creative work.

Gallery Artist Initiative
Places member artists’ work in partner businesses for ongoing paid display, creating a consistent income stream outside of events and grant cycles.

Fiscal Sponsorship
Allows individual artists to access grant funding for their own community-based art projects through NNAC’s 501(c)(3) infrastructure.

Artist Hiring and Event Activations
Connects member artists to paid opportunities at community events and activations, generating income for artists and revenue for the organization.

Membership
Open to all artists. Monthly or annual membership providing access to paid event opportunities, 37208 Creates space, and the Gallery Artist Initiative.

Detailed programs

Jefferson Street Art Crawl / North Nashville Culture Crawl

NNAC’s founding program, launched in 2016 and now celebrating its 10th anniversary. Originally the Jefferson Street Art Crawl, it has grown into the North Nashville Culture Crawl, an annual multi-venue arts festival spanning galleries, community spaces, live music venues, and public sites across North Nashville. The event features curated gallery exhibitions, live music performances, hands-on art activations, and community programming, centering artists from North Nashville’s historically Black community while welcoming the broader public. The 2026 theme is Ubuntu — I am because we are. The Culture Crawl is open to all and is the only African American-led art crawl in Greater Nashville. Fundraising target: $65,000. Attendance growth goal: 20% year over year.

Mobile Ink Link

A traveling arts studio that brings free, hands-on art-making to families and youth at major community festivals throughout Nashville, including the African Street Festival, Cherry Blossom Festival, Juneteenth at Fort Negley, Black on Buchanan, and Tomato Art Fest. The program deploys contracted artists to facilitate creative activities for participants of all ages, removing cost and access barriers entirely by meeting people where they already gather. Mobile Ink Link also operates as a rentable Community Creation Hub for outside groups seeking facilitated art experiences. Program lead: Elisheba Israel Mrozik. Teaching artist: Eric Nyamor. In FY26, Mobile Ink Link reached 7,657 in-person participants across four major activations and directly employed 11 contracted artists.

37208 Creates

NNAC’s storefront program at 100 Taylor Street in North Nashville. Artists use the space to display and sell their work, offer live creative services, or meet with clients, in exchange for a small percentage of proceeds donated back to the organization. The space is managed through a scheduling system and governed by a Member Space Use Agreement that outlines tiered use options including Live Service, Wall and Table Rental, Pop-Up, and Anchor Tenant arrangements. 37208 Creates functions as both an artist income opportunity and an earned-revenue stream for NNAC, reducing dependence on grant funding alone.

Portfolio Day

A professional development program for member artists focused on helping them build the skills and materials needed to present their work professionally, pursue opportunities, and grow sustainable creative businesses. Reflects NNAC’s core philosophy that the goal is not just to get artists paid but to help them build solid, lasting business foundations.

Gallery Artist Initiative

Places member artists’ work in partner businesses throughout Nashville for ongoing paid display. Partner businesses pay a monthly fee directly to the artist for displaying their work, creating a consistent, recurring income stream outside of events and grant cycles. Current partners include Rock Nashville, wh

Target Audience

NNAC Target Audience

NNAC serves two interconnected audiences. Our primary audience is artists of color rooted in North Nashville’s historically Black community, including visual artists, muralists, tattooists, craftspeople, and musicians who have been historically excluded from mainstream arts funding, gallery representation, and professional development opportunities. We meet them where they are and work to build the business foundation they need to sustain a creative career.

Our secondary audience is the broader North Nashville community, particularly families, youth, and residents of the 37208 zip code and surrounding neighborhoods, who receive free, accessible arts programming and experiences through our festivals and Mobile Ink Link activations.

All are welcome. Our focus is intentional.

Geographic Focus

United States

Current projects

North Nashville Culture Crawl — 10th Anniversary
Date: October 24, 2026. Full event production underway including venue coordination, artist and curator agreements, budget management, AV, shuttle logistics, marketing, and entertainment booking. Theme: Ubuntu — I am because we are.

37208 Creates — Storefront Operations
Ongoing. Member space use agreements in place, space bookings managed through Calendly, store manager overseeing day-to-day operations at 100 Taylor Street.


Tomato Art Fest Activation
Dates: August 7-9, 2026. Mobile Ink Link activation in planning.

African Street Festival Activation
Date: Third weekend of September 2026. Mobile Ink Link activation in planning.

Artist in Residence Program
In development. No other Nashville organization currently filling this gap for artists of color.

Organization goals

NNAC exists to invest in, nurture, and advance artists in North Nashville by providing access and opportunity to equitably thrive. We do this by creating paid opportunities for artists, building their long-term business foundations, and preserving the cultural legacy of North Nashville's historically Black community.

Our goals are threefold: grow and sustain programs that put artists to work and bring free arts access to the community, build the organizational infrastructure to operate independently of any single person's bandwidth, and diversify our revenue so we are not dependent on any single funding source.

We are working toward a Nashville where artists of color have every resource, opportunity, and institutional support they need to build sustainable creative careers right here in the community that shaped them.

Leadership

Elisheba Israel Mrozik — President and Founder

Joe Bazelais — Board Member, Grants and Fundraising

Drew Lamb — Treasurer, Accounting

Dr. Ramona Wiggins — Board Member, Membership

Deyonna Fairbanks — Secretary

Gerika Ross — Board Member, Communications

Jess Williams — Board Member, Outreach

Matthew McCoy — Board Member

Terri Lynn Davis — Fiscal Agent and Administrative Contractor

Robin Boyd — Part-Time Artist and Program Coordinator

Funding Needs

Funding needs

The North Nashville Arts Coalition is a volunteer-run, artist-led 501(c)(3) organization operating with minimal administrative infrastructure and a growing portfolio of programs that serve thousands of Nashville community members each year. Our funding needs fall into four interconnected categories: staffing and administrative capacity, program operations, organizational infrastructure, and long-term sustainability. Securing diversified, sustainable funding is the single most critical factor in NNAC’s ability to grow from a founder-dependent volunteer organization into a resilient, community-rooted institution.

1. Staffing and Administrative Capacity

NNAC’s most pressing funding need is people. Since 2018, the organization has operated almost entirely on the unpaid labor of its founder and a volunteer board of 8 to 11 members. This model is not sustainable at the scale NNAC has reached. We have taken a first step by adding a part-time administrative contractor at approximately 20 hours per week, but this position requires consistent funding to remain in place and eventually grow.

Our strategic roadmap calls for:

A part-time administrative contractor (current, approximately 20 hours per week) to handle grant compliance, scheduling, communications, and day-to-day organizational management. Estimated annual cost: $24,000-30,000

A full-time executive director hire as the organization secures major foundation partnership, allowing the founding President to transition into an advisory role. Estimated annual cost: $75,000-100,000 depending on experience and benefits.

Funding that supports staffing directly — not just programs — is what will allow NNAC to stop depending on one person’s unpaid time and start building an organization that outlasts any individual.

Website & Social Media