Douglas Anderson School of the Arts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article may require cleanup.
More verifiable information on this school is needed. Guidelines and editing help are available.
See rationale on this article's talk page. This school based article is related to WikiProject Schools.

Douglas Anderson School of The Arts
School type Public
Homepage http://www.educationcentral.org/dasota/

Douglas Anderson School of the Arts (or "DA") is a magnet high school in the Duval County (Jacksonville, Florida) school system. The school first opened in the 1930s as a traditional school for African-American students. Over the years, it also served as a Sixth and Seventh Grade Center. Douglas Anderson became an arts school in 1985.

Contents

[edit] Academics and Arts

Students take traditional high school courses such as English, Biology, etc., while concurrently attending arts classes as part of a specific arts program. The "arts areas" in which a student may major are Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theatre, Technical Theatre, Film/TV, Visual Arts, Piano, Guitar, and Vocal Music. Students are accepted to the school based on auditions offered in the spring of each school year. A number of AP (Advanced Placement) and honors classes are also offered in numerous academic areas.

[edit] Music

The Douglas Anderson Music Department offers private and group instruction as well as band, choral, and orchestral ensembles. Performances throughout Florida and the nation occur on a regular basis. Past important faculty members in the Music Department include founding piano instructor, Gail Jacobs. Mr. Jeffrey Clayton is now the head of the Vocal department at Douglas Anderson.

[edit] Creative Writing

The Creative Writing Department at Douglas Anderson is led by Ms. Jackie Jones with the support of Addae Moon, Janet Herrick, Denise Dvorak, and Brandy Allport. The writing courses offered to students at Douglas Anderson are Creative Writing I, II, III, IV, Editing, Poetry Portfolio, Fiction Portfolio, Editing, Journalism, and Creative Non-Fiction, among others. The department was opened in 1990 and was one of the last to have a building specifically built for it. As of 2005, the Creative Writing Department has its own building. The Creative Writing department produces a literary magazine, Elan, and a newspaper, The Improviser. Past important faculty members in the Creative Writing Department include Sarah Wetzel-Reiss and Kim Meadows and accomplished author Teri Youmans Grimm.

[edit] Film/TV

The Film/TV department is the newest department in the school. Here students, using mostly Final Cut Pro, can shoot, edit, and produce professional Films and Shows. The studio is equipped with a green screen for visual effects. The department chair Scott Reneau come to the school after a dozen years in Hollywood. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Reneau served as development executive at Walt Disney[1] Pictures, working with writers and producers on various films. Lorry Romano established the program in 1997 and has maintained the continuity and defined the standards that have made the department a success. Jennifer Braddock is the newest Film Teacher. She is a graduated of FSU Film School[2]. Ms. Braddock currently is in charge of the DA production company.
The DA Production company is hired to produce a variety of local videos.

    The Film/TV department had a winter showcase on 12/8/06

There were many short films, theme videos, and poem projects, featured in the showcase. Some of the highlights included: "Visions of Gandhi", "Arabica", "Blue Kow", "Scent of a Woman", "Moleissa", "Call it ours", and "Goldfish girl."

[edit] Theater Arts/Tech Theater

The Theater Arts/Tech Theater department has been around since the school's beginning. Lead many years by the infamous department head, Dr. Lee Beger, the department has a reputation of high-quality/professional shows. The department averages 4 shows a year, which include: a children's show, a musical/Shakespeare, Mr. Higgin's show, and a spring show that is usually contemporary. The teachers within the department all hold high degrees in theater arts. The classes are generally very intensive. By the time you graduate from the department, you will have taken four years of acting classes, various technical theater classes, a college level theater history class, as well as electives like Directing and Musical Theater. The tech department allows students to assistant design, technical direct, and lead groups of their peers in creation of costumes, props, and sets. The performing theatre majors and tech majors are expected to prepare juries at the end of each school year that show there growth over the year. The theater department recently performed the tony award [3] winning musical Cabaret[4].

[edit] Newer School Policies

The school has recently added additional ID policies to the school. Each class now is required to wear a color coded lanyard.

Freshmen: Red
Sophomore: Blue
Junior: Yellow
Senior: Black

Many students are unhappy with the new policies. Older and former students also say the school has, in general, tighter policies than it used to.

[edit] Design

The school's design is unique with a visual layout that utilizes a variety of colors, a "tin" design, and oddly shaped buildings [5]. Some interesting features of the campus are the rotunda, the office area, the sculpture garden, the art gallery, the vocal building, and the theatre.


One of the most popular and unique aspects of Douglas Anderson were its courtyards, which featured trees and grass. The courtyards were a popular place to congregate during free time, and many students could be seen playing guitars and enjoying one another's company. The seniors had a courtyard designated solely for them. Unfortunately, construction on the school to renovate the facilities and produce new buildings led to trees being cut down and the courtyards being destroyed. The beginning of this change was in 2001, with the courtyards disappearing entirely by 2003. Despite protesting from the students and many an unflattering article in The Improviser, no courtyards and very few trees remain.

[edit] Notable Alumni

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../d/o/u/Douglas_Anderson_School_of_the_Arts_4be4.html"