The Kennedy Center’s Any Given Child Program

A band director in Grand Prairie ISD, TX, Robert Sullivan has led school bands to a number of major achievements. When he was a band director in Austin ISD, Robert Sullivan doubled the size of the band program and won the $250,000 Any Given Child grant for Crockett High School’s vertical fine arts cluster.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts oversees the Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child program, which helps communities expand the role of arts education in schooling. The program helps to establish the infrastructure that allows primary and middle school students to access the arts. More specifically, the grant program provides funds to support access to the media arts, the visual arts, music, dance, and theater.

The communities that benefit from the grant direct their efforts towards developing and achieving goals for the planning, sustenance, and development of arts resources and education programs; building organizational infrastructure and support systems; securing funding; and communicating and collaborating with leaders and policy makers.