YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES

Community Arts Leaders of Nashville Internships

Host Site applications for the 2024-2025 academic year are currently open!

Community Arts Leaders of Nashville (CALN) provides paid internships at Nashville-based arts organizations, mentorship with arts professionals, and professional development experiences for undergraduate college students.

During the summer of 2023, Metro Arts awarded seven internships through the Community Arts Leaders of Nashville program! This program provides undergraduates at Tennessee colleges with 10 weeks of paid work experience at Nashville-based arts organizations, mentorship with arts professionals, and professional development experiences for undergraduate college students. Interns also participate in optional arts and culture experiences around Nashville.

Apply to be a CALN Host Site

Goals of this program:

Provide undergraduate interns with direct work experience in the arts sector.
Facilitate connection between arts administrators and professionals at different stages in their careers.
Support the capacity of local arts organizations.
Increase the visibility and connectivity of arts organizations and artists in Nashville.

For the 2024-2025 academic year, Metro Arts expects to award seven internships each semester* for 14 weeks of paid work experience at Nashville-based arts organizations. Interns will each receive $3,750 to work 8-10 hours per week during the 14-week internship period. Interns will also participate in approximately 5 hours of one-on-one mentoring with an arts professional, 4 professional development workshops, and optional arts and culture experiences around Nashville.

2024-2025 Application Guidelines

Application Deadlines:

*We are currently working to relaunch this program in the Spring of 2025.

Upon approval, we plan to resume the application process by confirming the host sites and inviting students and mentors to complete the application process by mid-December.
Host Sites: March 8, 2024 at 11:59PM Central Time
Students (Spring 2025 Semester): TBD
Mentors (Spring 2025 Semester): TBD

For questions about Community Arts Leaders of Nashville, contact Restorative Arts and Equity Manager Josiah Golson.

*This program is dependent on funding available from Metro Arts’ budget. The exact number of internships awarded is dependent on the number of intern applications and number of host organizations.

Arts Programming for Court-Involved Youth

(formerly Restorative Arts)

Arts Programming for Court-Involved Youth is a collaboration between Metro Arts, the Metro Nashville Davidson County Juvenile Court (JJC), and their Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) contracted provider to create an arts-integrated intervention system for court-involved youth that focuses on resiliency, positive youth development, and restoring empowered youth and families.

Under the leadership of Judge Sheila Calloway, JJC officials support court-involved youth to heal, grow and thrive by assessing each individual’s skills and needs and connecting them and their families to resources aimed at health and well-being. As there is growing evidence that long term, sustained arts learning and arts experiences have deep and lasting positive impact on children’s cognitive development, through this partnership, we are helping to facilitate artists to create programming inclusive of children and youth who have been involved with the justice system. Through these arts interactions, youth develop a growing capacity for emotional attachment, empathy, reasoning, decision-making, trust, self-identity, and self and community esteem.

Through quality programming that is trauma-informed and anchored in positive youth development practices, the program positions the arts as a part of restorative practice and creates a protective environment for court-involved youth to heal, grow and thrive. Introducing them to a wide variety of art forms (drumming, dance, theater, spoken word, visual art, etc.) not only unlocks their potential by teaching skills in perseverance, self-expression, empathy, community building, but also empowers the youth to make more positive choices.

Please note: FY23 is a reverification year for current arts programming providers.

FY23 Guidelines: Arts Programming for Court-Involved Youth

FY23 Reverification Application: Arts Programming for Court-Involved Youth

Contact Restorative Arts and Equity Manager, Josiah Golson, with questions about Arts Programming for Court-Involved Youth.