BusinessTN

After 15 years in Nashville, the Southern Festival of Books is taking a year-long sabbatical to Memphis, where supporters are expected to offer more than $100,000 to help fund the event.

By leaving Nashville, the event will likely lose about $30,000 in grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and the Frist Foundation, but the funds available in Memphis should more than make up for that loss.

The Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau offered roughly $100,000 to keep the festival, but its proposal included more in-kind donations than the Memphis offer, says Robert Cheatham, president of Nashville-based Humanities Tennessee, the event’s nonprofit organizer.

In early December, the board of Humanities Tennessee voted unanimously to move the festival to the Memphis Cook Convention Center and Civic Plaza in 2004 and return to Nashville in 2005.

More than money triggered the decision. Legislative Plaza, the event’s regular venue, is scheduled for renovations during the planned Oct. 8-10 festival. Once they realized the event was homeless, festival organizers quickly considered Memphis.

“It’s been in the back of our minds for years,” Cheatham says. “It didn’t seem doable at first, but now everything is electronic, and we’re much better organized.”

Cheatham considers the move a "logical" decision that will double the event’s presence without doubling its expenses. The increased funding is expected to offset additional travel costs for event staff.

Expected Memphis supporters include The Commercial Appeal, The Assisi Foundation, Channel 3, Davis-Kidd Booksellers and Burke’s Book Store.

The book festival is for all of Tennessee, not just one city, Cheatham says. Humanities Tennessee receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the funding is intended for statewide programs.

Kevin Kane, president and chief executive of the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau, acknowledges the two cities’ rivalry but says, “If it’s good for Memphis, it’s good for Tennessee. And if it’s good for Tennessee, it’s good for Nashville.”

Still, Nashville wanted the festival to stay put, says Ava Philson, spokesperson for the Nashville Mayor’s Office, adding that the event should be in Nashville.

The Nashville CVB had proposed an optional downtown venue, but Cheatham says, “I don’t think there’s a location in Nashville that’s as nice or meets our needs as well as Legislative Plaza has.” Cheatham hopes to see the event alternate between Nashville and Memphis.

For now, the move to Memphis will not only give the festival a shot in the arm with a new site and fresh faces, it also could help Humanities Tennessee better fund its other educational programs.

The book festival costs the organization about $300,000 but has operated at a $50,000 deficit, after earned income and fundraising. The NEH grant has paid the difference, but that has drained available income for the other Humanities Tennessee programs.

Cheatham says the move improves the festival’s financial outlook. After all, he adds, “it’s a good enough event to be self-sustaining.”