Sunflower Music Festival Approved for $20,000 NEA Award

Sunflower Music Festival has been approved for a $20,000.00 Grants for Arts Projects award to support their project “The Sunflower Music Festival and the African American Experience 2022”.

This project will highlight the achievements of African Americans in classical music by presenting performers, soloists and composers of color, under the baton of esteemed African American conductor, André Raphel.

Sunflower Music Festival’s project is among 1,248 projects across America totaling $28,840,000 that were selected to receive this first round of fiscal year 2022 funding in the Grants for Arts Projects category.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects like this one from Sunflower Music Festival that help support the community’s creative economy,” said NEA Acting Chair Ann Eilers. “Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka is among the arts organizations nationwide that are using the arts as a source of strength, a path to well-being, and providing access and opportunity for people to connect and find joy through the arts.”

Dr. David Woods, grant-writing chair of the Sunflower Music Festival Board of Directors said, “To be endorsed and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts with grant awards for three years in a row demonstrates the vitality and strength of the Sunflower Music Festival and its contribution to the cultural and aesthetic environment in the state of Kansas and in the capitol city of Topeka. The 35th season of Sunflower will be one of the best in its history.”

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954, was a landmark supreme court case that ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. In 1992, Congress named the Monroe School in Topeka a National Historic Site.

The Sunflower Festival will celebrate Black Music and Musicians at the 2022 Festival in coordination with the Brown v. Board Historic Site, with concerts offered at both Washburn University and the Brown v. Board Historic site. The live concerts will be streamed to a diverse audience.

All festival events are free and open to the public. For more details and to make plan to attend, visit sunflowermusicfestival.org