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When Mississippi State University-Meridian and the Meridian Public School District applied for designation as a site for the nation's premier collaborative program for integrating the arts across academic disciplines in public schools, the Phil Hardin Foundation partnered with the Riley Foundation to ensure the required local financial support.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., ultimately named Meridian one of then only two dozen sites nationwide for its Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child program, and MPSD is now in the fifth year of its implementation in all elementary and middle schools in the district. The Hardin Foundation remains the lead funder of the initiative with its $100,000 annual contribution.
Any Given Child brings community leaders, arts organizations and the schools together in a structured process that establishes goals, develops a plan and builds support for equipping teachers to use various art forms to teach math, science, English and social studies. Research demonstrates increased student engagement and improved academic performance when arts-integration methods are systematically employed, and the effect is particularly notable among students from low-income households. Results of the first full year of implementation in the 2018-19 school year validated that promise, with a combination of improved academic performance, reduced chronic absenteeism and increased teacher satisfaction. While much of its programming has been altered or restricted during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Hardin Foundation sees Any Given Child as a key ongoing component in MPSD's effort to raise levels of teacher effectiveness and student achievement.
In addition, the Hardin Foundation has been a consistent supporter through the years of the Mississippi Arts Commission's Whole Schools Initiative, helping to fund its summer training institute for teachers from across the state to learn about arts integration in the classroom.
