About us:
Left Bank is a Nashville-based arts management company devoted to supporting artists and projects that are mission-driven and responsive to communities.
dedicated to:
* managing, supporting, and marketing deeply creative artists, projects and events
* developing projects that are inclusive, diverse, revelatory, which encourage hope, promote peace.
* connecting artists to like-minded presenters and institutions nationally and internationally
* amplifying women's voices in the arts, especially in the South
Our Services:
* artist & project management
* grant-writing and fundraising
* booking
* tour marketing & promotion
Photo by Khalid Ali
CARISSa stolting / Artist & Event Management
Carissa Stolting is an artist & event manager, and the founder of Left Bank Artists. In 2014, Stolting created Left Bank with Grammy award-winning artist and cultural ambassador, Abigail Washburn, with the intent of building an arts management company that champions artistic integrity and creativity above all. Left Bank has since become the management home to wildly inventive artists like Leyla McCalla, Rachel Grimes, Wu Fei, Allison Russell, Ahleuchatistas and more.
Carissa has a passion for producing live events in addition to supporting the growth of artists’ careers. She produced / curated Nashville International Women’s Day (2017), Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn’s “Circle Round Home” residency (2017), the Mirror House music & literary series (2021-2023), and co-produced/ co-curated the 6-hr Nashville Drone in 2024. She was the Managing Director of the internationally beloved Big Ears Festival (2018 & 2019) and got her start in music working on major festivals and events in the southeast (Bonnaroo, Forecastle, Moogfest) at AC Entertainment alongside president Ashley Capps.
Responding to the expansive creative vision of artists on the Left Bank roster, Carissa partnered with artist and grant-writer Celine Thackston to create a 501c3 non-profit— Unmanageable— whose mission is to build power and mobilize resources for artists engaged in social change work. Unmanageable was founded in 2020 and raised over 1M for artists and their creative projects by April of 2024. www.unmgmt.org.
Stolting is a board member of experimental chamber ensemble, chatterbird and an advisory board member of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures at her alma mater, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Carissa holds an M.A. in French & Linguistics and was a French Lecturer before she began working in music .
Celine Thackston / Grant-writer & Development Consultant
Celine Thackston is a grant writer and development consultant. A skilled writer, she raised more than three million dollars in the last fiscal year for a range of arts, education, and human services organizations as well as individual artists.
Past and current partnerships include the Nashville Symphony, the Big Ears Festival, Nashville Opera, OZ Arts, End Slavery Tennessee, Second Harvest Food Bank, Youth Empowerment through Arts and Humanities, ALIAS Chamber Ensemble, and others. Beyond assisting arts organizations with grant writing and development strategies, she has helped a number of individual artists, including musicians, composers, and visual artists.
In addition to grant writing, Celine has experience in crafting direct mail appeals, producing focused individual and foundation prospect research, designing advocacy campaigns, and building out annual fundraising plans. She holds a DMA in Music Performance from the University of Oregon, with supporting studies in Arts Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management.