Metro Arts Commission Names Ashley Bachelder as Executive Director

The Metro Arts Commission has appointed Ashley Bachelder as Executive Director, affirming the steady leadership she has provided during more than 18 months in the interim role. During that time, Bachelder has guided the agency through key operational improvements, strengthened internal processes, and advanced investments that support Nashville’s creative sector. Her appointment ensures continuity in this work and positions Metro Arts to deepen its services to residents and the city’s cultural landscape.

Bachelder brings 15 years of experience and leadership spanning across academia, nonprofits, and government.  She began her career in public health as a community-based researcher where she focused on establishing community-academic partnerships to tackle issues of healthcare access and system design aimed at reducing health disparities. Her nonprofit work broadened that focus, centering on intersecting social issues such as public transit, affordable housing, eviction prevention, and economic justice. She has held roles in fundraising, research and evaluation, program design, and organizational leadership, including serving as co‑director of a local nonprofit. She holds dual masters degrees in Public Health and Public Service from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Clinton School of Public Service.

Before joining Metro Arts, Bachelder served as Director of Policy and Research at the Metro Human Relations Commission, where she contributed to reforms that strengthened Metro Arts’ grantmaking and facilitated a process that resulted in the largest one‑time investment in the annual grant program.

Her connection to the arts is rooted in lived experience as much as professional practice. “I have reflected frequently about my own experiences and position to arts and culture since taking on this role last year,” Bachelder shared. “I was fortunate to have arts and music programming throughout my school years, but more uniquely, I grew up with a parent who was a Square Dance Caller. We spent years traveling around small towns across New England singing and dancing with different clubs, and really experiencing how valuable those experiences were for creating connections, traditions, and joy between people I would never have met otherwise, while building skills and confidence to participate in social life.”

She sees her work at Metro Arts as a natural extension of her public health background. “What we do at Metro Arts is absolutely about public health and well‑being, whether we are looking at the individual level of supporting artists or at the community level about how arts and cultural work improves quality of life. It’s also easy to look back at work I’ve done in other sectors and see so many examples of how creative expression has been central to it.”

Bachelder recalls first learning about Metro Arts through a 2021 partnership with a Thrive-funded artist who led Latino construction laborers in a poetry workshop that culminated in a Spanish‑language poem displayed on a Nolensville Pike billboard. “There are endless examples about how creative expression and the arts are weaved through so many aspects of our lives,” Bachelder says. “The arts are engrained in civic life. We are also living in a time when people across the country are grappling with questions of belonging, resilience, trust, safety, and well‑being. The arts are essential as we navigate through all of this. It’s critical that we promote and really show how vital the arts are as we work to expand resources and support for our artists and creative community.” She added that Nashville’s creative sector is a major economic engine, generating jobs, attracting tourism, and fueling the city’s continued growth. “Our city’s success is inseparable from the artists, cultural workers, and creative communities who make Nashville what it is.”

As Interim Director, Bachelder has administered more than $9.6 million to organizations and artist‑led projects, led the agency’s response to a 2024 audit to bring key functions into compliance, and expanded the Metro Arts team to ensure staff are equipped to advance the agency’s mission.

“I am proud to continue leading this agency, drawing from my career that is grounded in public service and has always focused on increasing tangible, impactful investments at the community level,” stated Bachelder. “We are an engaged agency and committed to growth. Our team believes in the transformative power of engagement with the arts and will advocate for greater investment and resources to strengthen this work at every opportunity possible.”