Revisiting Tennessee’s Future: A Year in Trends and Their Impact

June 23, 2025June 23, 2025

Last summer, Elizabeth Merritt – the founding director of the American Alliance of Museums’ Center for the Future of Museums – created a special Tennessee edition of Dispatches from the Future of Museums in advance of the strategic foresight workshops she led across the state. This document noted current trends, projections, and tools for the future. One year later, we are revisiting the trends and projections she identified to see what’s changed and examine their impact.

Unemployment

In June 2024, when Merritt compiled the report, Tennessee’s unemployment rate hit a historic low of 3% and was coupled with continued statewide job growth. The unemployment rate held at 3% through August 2024 and then increased each month through March 2025 when it dropped from 3.7% to 3.6%. The seasonally adjusted rate for April 2025 was 3.5%, which was below the national rate of 4.2%.¹

A closer look at the April data shows that the ten counties with the lowest unemployment rates (between 2.2-2.5%) are in Middle and East Tennessee, clustered around Nashville, Murfreesboro, and Knoxville. Conversely, the ten counties with the highest unemployment rates (5.1-4.0%) are rural counties distributed throughout the state.

Questions to consider: Can humanities organizations offer employment opportunities to youth in these distressed counties through the state’s Youth Employment Program or a similar initiative? How might humanities programming address this rural/urban divide?

Censorship

Last summer Merritt reported, “Tennessee is at that national forefront of book challenges and book bannings,” a trend which has continued to accelerate according to the American Library Association’s data. In 2024, Tennessee, along with Texas and Florida, was among the three largest book challengers in the country. There were 24 reported attempts to restrict access to books with a total of 1,253 books challenged here.²

In July 2024, state law HB 843, an expansion of the “2022 Age-Appropriate Materials Act,” went into effect. It prohibits public school libraries “from having books with “nudity, or descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse,” or any book that is “patently offensive … or appeals to the prurient interest.”” In response, Wilson County Schools removed over 400 books from its libraries.³ Reporting showed that Montgomery-Clarksville Schools and Rutherford County Schools also preemptively removed books.⁴ On April 16, 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed a lawsuit against the Rutherford County Board of Education in response to removal and restriction of over 140 books from their school libraries.⁵

Censorship efforts have also crossed over into museum exhibits. In winter 2024, East Tennessee State University’s Reece Museum received demands from Republican state lawmakers to remove a mixed-media piece that depicted a conservative politician with fascist symbols, which was part of the juried FL3TCH3R Exhibit: Socially and Politically Engaged Art. In response, the museum left the artwork on display but added a content warning and required viewers to sign a waiver before viewing the exhibit. After eleven years of hosting the exhibit, ETSU and the Reese Museum ended their relationship with the exhibit’s organizers in April 2025.⁶

Questions to consider: What role do humanities organizations have in standing against censorship? With these challenges in mind, how can organizations like museums prepare for potential challenges to their collections or exhibitions?

Storm Severity

The 2024 projection of an increase in severe storms appears to be holding constant. In September 2024, communities in East Tennessee were devastated by flooding caused by Hurricane Helene and a separate heavy rain event. Some towns received between six and nine inches of rain while waterways surged with runoff from North Carolina mountains. Hurricane Helene caused the Nolichucky River to flood, which severely damaged or destroyed every facility in Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park in Greene County and interrupted the park’s interpretive programs. A new Master Plan for the park is currently underway to determine how to rebuild.

At least one cultural organization recently made capital improvements that increased their resilience in advance of the devastating stores. According to the Tennessee State Museum, which administers the State’s Capital Maintenance and Improvement Grant Program, the Unicoi County Heritage Museum in Erwin, Tennessee, used grant funds to replace their aged roof, which withstood Hurricane Helene and kept their artifacts intact.

Questions to consider: Are organizations actively preparing for wetter and hotter weather? What legislative advocacy efforts can be taken to secure public investment in historical infrastructure? What role can organizations play in being climate leaders in their communities? How might humanities programming be used to build community consensus?