A Nashville nonprofit is transforming an old church into a permanent space where veterans can connect through creativity, with founder Richard Casper hoping it becomes somewhere former service members can go the moment PTSD symptoms hit. CreatiVets is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Marine Corps veteran behind the organization envisions a place where art is never more than a few steps away, any hour of the day or night.
According to WSMV, Casper hopes the new art center will allow creativity around the clock and become a place veterans can go when PTSD hits. Casper, who was injured in Iraq, said art is what ultimately pulled him through his own darkest stretch. “Ultimately, it ended up saving my life,” he told the station. He described the vision for the renovated building in simple terms: “It could be midnight. You can come write a song, or beat up some clay, or go to the wood shop.”
From Vacant Church to Veteran Headquarters
The project traces back to an August announcement from CreatiVets, which said it had been selected to receive a $350,000 grant through Lowe’s Community Impact program to help renovate a vacant Nashville church into what the organization described as a 24/7 healing center for veterans. The plan calls for spaces devoted to music, painting, sculpture, theater, and screenwriting, with the building eventually serving as CreatiVets’ headquarters, per the nonprofit’s own account.
That same update from CreatiVets noted a setback: shortly after the organization acquired the property, it was vandalized, a blow the group said hit it financially during renovations. CreatiVets has said the new center could help it work through its waiting list, with hopes of eventually enrolling three times as many veterans as it currently serves, and the organization says it has worked with more than 5,000 veterans since it began.
Separate reporting from NewsChannel 5 described plans for the West Nashville site on Robertson Avenue to include a performance and event space, 24-hour access to a makerspace, and dedicated songwriting rooms. The Nashville Post reported that CreatiVets bought the property at 5701 Robertson Ave. for $3.35 million, according to a Davidson County Register of Deeds document.
Veterans Describe What Creativity Gave Them Back
Seth Cole, CreatiVets’ Veteran Outreach Coordinator, said the arts helped him find healing and sleep after a long stretch without it. “It really helped me be able to find healing and be able to find sleep, which I hadn’t had in so long,” he said, according to WSMV’s report. Cole said he later went to the VA to help other veterans tell their stories through art, the same way Casper had taught him.
Tim Brown, CreatiVets’ Art Director and a veteran himself, said the space will give service members something many lose once they leave the military. “Community is one of the biggest things that we lose when we leave the military,” Brown said, per the station's report. He described the planned center as a way to rebuild that sense of belonging through shared creative work.
Timeline and the Broader Push for Creative Spaces
Veterans can expect to start creating in the space in spring 2027, according to the same WSMV account. The push toward dedicated creative spaces for veterans isn’t unique to Nashville. On Veterans Day, Help Heal Veterans held the grand opening of its new Creative Engagement Center at Liberty Station in San Diego, according to Times of San Diego. That organization says it has distributed more than 31 million therapeutic craft kits across hundreds of categories, supporting veterans and active-duty personnel dealing with conditions including PTSD, traumatic brain injury, anxiety and depression, and its center aims to give people an open space to talk, grab a kit, or join in therapeutic programming.
A similar model emerged more than a decade earlier outside Washington, D.C., when the 296 Project planned a walk-in creative arts studio where service members and veterans could create and socialize, according to Military Times. That studio aimed to serve veterans with combat-related PTSD and traumatic brain injury while welcoming all veterans who wanted to take part. For now, CreatiVets’ Nashville project remains under renovation, with the organization and local outlets pointing to spring 2027 as the expected starting point for veterans to begin creating inside the former church.
