San Francisco School of the Arts

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San Francisco School of the Arts
Pennant of School of the Arts
Location
555 Portola Drive
San Francisco, California
Information
Principal Carmelo Sgarlato
Enrollment

about 600
Faculty 80
Campus Urban
Teams None
Homepage http://sfsota.org

School of the Arts High School (SOTA) is a public magnet high school in San Francisco, California, in the United States. According to the school's official website, SOTA's mission is "to provide a specialized high school program and learning environment which are conducive to creative and independent thinking and artistic and academic excellence for promising students of the arts." SOTA was ranked by Newsweek's Jay Mathews Challenge Index as the 347th best high school in the United States in 2007.[1]

SOTA is known as having one of the more ethnically diverse student populations in the city. In addition to the standard high school academic curriculum, SOTA offers comprehensive four-year artistic programs in the following disciplines: Creative Writing, Dance, Film & Video (alternatively referred to as Media), Instrumental Music, Piano, Theatre, Theatre Design & Technology, Visual Art, and Vocal. To be admitted, a student is required to pass an audition in the chosen art discipline.

Contents

[edit] History and controversy

For many years, Ruth Asawa and others campaigned to start a public high school in San Francisco devoted to the arts. At its inception, SOTA was a part of J. Eugene McAteer High School and was located at its present site on Portola Drive. In 1992, the school moved to a former elementary school at 700 Font Boulevard near San Francisco State University. In 2002, the school returned to the site of McAteer High School, and McAteer High School was dissolved. In 2005, a new school, the Academy of Arts and Sciences, was founded on the SOTA campus.

SOTA has been at the center of several struggles with the San Francisco Green Party, particularly with the Green members of the San Francisco Board of Education. These feuds are generally based on a perception of SOTA as elitist or racist. Matt Gonzalez, a San Francisco Green Party leader who won 47% of the vote in San Francisco's 2003 mayoral runoff election, stated in his campaign platform[1] that "passing an audition is a hurdle that many students can’t surmount" and that "the school district must ensure a 'pipeline' through the elementary and middle schools that will guarantee much higher rates of low income minority representation at SOTA."

At a School Board meeting in December 2005, Green board member Mark Sanchez, asserting that SOTA did not make adequate use of the McAteer campus, proposed moving SOTA to "empty classrooms in a middle school in the Mission or Excelsior district" in order to lease the campus and thus tighten the district's budget gap. Proponents of SOTA counter that Sanchez's proposal amounts to the District "becom(ing) landlords at the expense of our students," and that with the newly founded Academy of Arts and Sciences bringing the number of students on the campus to 1,000 once it has reached peak capacity, along with the many SFUSD offices located at SOTA, "(i)t is completely inaccurate to say that this is an underutilized campus."

[edit] Location

555 Portola Drive, San Francisco, CA 94131

SOTA is located at the former McAteer High School campus, at the intersection of Portola Drive and O'Shaughnessy Boulevard.

[edit] Admissions

To enter SOTA, prospective students must pass an audition into one of SOTA's 9 disciplines. The audition process varies between disciplines, and may change from year to year. Some departments, such as Visual Arts and Creative Writing, require students to bring a portfolio of their work to be presented before a panel of judges. Theatre, Dance, and Instrumental Music departments require live performances by prospective students as part of their auditions. Other departments may require applicants to simply attend the audition and follow instructions.

[edit] Students

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Student clubs and associations

There are currently a number of clubs in the school, but students are always encouraged to start new ones. Some examples of student clubs and associations: the Populist Party, which is non-political but publishes a school-wide newsletter, the California Scholarship Federation (CSF), the Junior Statesmen of America (JSA), the Mock Trial Team, the Bonobo Club, the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), the Polynesian Club, the Latino Club, the Anime Club, the Hiking Club, and the Trail Restoration Club.

[edit] The arts

The arts are SOTA's primary focus, with nine disciplines. The entire afternoon at SOTA (from 1:00pm until 3:00pm or 4:00pm) is devoted to the arts, leaving the departments a level of freedom in determining students' schedules within their arts. In many departments, such as the four music departments and the visual arts department, students have a wide variety of art classes.

[edit] Creative writing

The Creative Writing department is one of the smallest in the school, the newest, and the most heavily applied for, with a far greater ratio of applicants to available spaces than other departments. Heather Woodward, who played an instrumental role in the formation of the department, serves as its director. The Creative Writing department has its own website: http://www.sfsota-creativewriting.org.

[edit] Dance

The dance department, led by Elvia Marta, is the only department whose instruction occurs off the SOTA campus, in dance studios in downtown San Francisco, due to the lack of a professional-level dance studio on the current SOTA campus. Dance students are taken downtown by bus during SOTA's lunch break, and are dismissed from there.

[edit] Instrumental Music

The band, directed by Steve Hendee, and the orchestra, directed by Jerry Pannone, are among the most-applied-for disciplines at SOTA, owing to extensive instrumental education in San Francisco middle schools. Concert ensembles include the Concert Band, Intermediate Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Advanced Orchestra, and Full Orchestra. SOTA has jazz ensembles directed by Melecio Magdaluyo, which include the Big Band, Advanced Combo, and Latin Band. Students in Instrumental Music take a variety of music-related classes including music theory, sight-singing, music history, and sectional rehearsals with various artists-in-residence. SOTA also hosts the annual CMEA Jazz Festival each spring. Students frequently create their own smaller ensembles ranging from hip hop to experimental jazz to different types of hardcore ska-metal. More traditional ensembles, such as classical string or wind groups are independently started by students interested.

[edit] Media

The Media department is devoted to the making of film and video productions as well as script and playwriting and film history. The students in this class learn the skills to direct and edit their own films, which are shown at the extremely popular Media Night for parents, faculty and students. The Department Head is Scott Eberhardt, with Artists in Residence Salome Milstead and Joe Fitzgerald.

[edit] Piano

Under the direction of Ava Soifer, the piano department at SOTA offers an opportunity for young pianists to study solo performance, chamber music, the art of accompanying and improvisation. Through their collaboration with the vocal and instrumental departments, students study and perform European classical repertoire, Jazz, Latin Jazz and attend weekly theory classes. Seniors participate in a Service Learning Program that places them in a San Francisco public school teaching piano to younger students. SOTA pianists matriculate to Music Conservatories, Colleges and Universities around the country including the Eastman School of Music, Juilliard School of Music, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

[edit] Theatre

According to the school's official website, the "Theatre department (Headed by Phillip Rayher and Ellen Koivisto) is a pre-professional environment that focuses on training in movement, voice, characterization and other aspects of theatre such as playwriting. SOTA theatre students grow and flourish in a rigorous, supportive environment that requires dedication, commitment and a strong sense of responsibility. SOTA theatre students showcase their training in a series of public performances, with further opportunities to participate in school-wide events such as the school musical, video productions and informal performances." The theatre department has a wide variety of classes from visiting artists, teaching them about different aspects of theatre. Some of the visiting artists who regularly teach the students in the Theatre Department, as of the 07-08 school year, are: Jubilith Moore (Asian Theatre), Elizabeth Carter (Voice and Shakespeare), Michelle Martin (Afro-Haitian Dance), Brady Lea (Improvisation and Physical Theatre), along with Phillip Rayher teaching Acting, and Ellen Koivisto teaching playwriting.

[edit] Theatre design and technology

Directed by Dan Kryston, the Theatre Tech Department is the department responsible for the production of the school's main stage interdisciplinary shows. Dan Kryston, an experienced director and performer, or Keith Carames, also an accomplished director and performer will direct the Fall and Spring shows. Students from all disciplines are allowed to audition. The Tech Department then builds the show, creating sets, costumes, props, sound and lights. The students are trained in box office, stage managing, costuming, set painting, etc. During the rest of the year the department trains its members in all the fields named above and supplies crews of stagehands, light designers and sound technicians for the over 80 performances a year that occur at SOTA.

[edit] Visual arts

The Visual Arts department is one of the largest at SOTA. Its students learn drawing, painting, and sculpting in a variety of mediums. The department is now headed by Phyllis Ciment. The list of specialized classes from grade to grade goes as such:

Freshman: Beginning Drawing (pencil, charcoal, conte crayon, pastel) and Painting (acrylic)

Sophomore: Beginning Photography (digital) and Sculpture

Junior: Intermediate Charcoal Drawing and Painting (oil)

Senior: Advanced Drawing (pencil, charcoal, etc.), Painting (oil and acrylic) and Special Elective Photography (analog and digital)

Beginning junior year, students are required to draw and paint live nude models who come into class on selected days.

[edit] Vocal

The Vocal Music Department, directed by Dr. Ilan Glasman, is among the more selective departments in the school. It consists of around 50-60 students. Vocal students go through a rigorous music program through which they learn to sing in various languages (such as Italian, German, French, etc.) both in an ensemble and as soloists. Students also attend Music Theory, Sightsinging, and Piano. Select ensembles are available, such as Chamber Singers and Vocal Jazz. Vocal students constitute by far the largest portion of lead and ensemble actors in SOTA's annual musicals. The Chamber Singers received 5th place in the Golden State Choral Competition in May 2007. In June 2007, the Vocal Music Department performed Mozart's Requiem at Carnegie Hall in New York City under the direction of John Ritter. Artists in residence include Ava Soifer, Melodi Dalton, Kathleen Hollingsworth, Steven Hankle, Monina Sen, Andy Padlo and Barry Koron.

[edit] Athletics

SOTA does not have an athletics program. SOTA students are allowed to join teams of other public high schools or outside leagues. However, all students must fulfill the district-mandated requirement of 4 semesters of physical education; sometimes this requirement is met in creative ways.

Recently, San Francisco schools, including SOTA, received funding that was to be spent solely on physical education. With no PE program, SOTA used this money to begin a number of physical education clubs, including Soccer (perhaps the current most popular), Volleyball, Track, Frisbee, and Hiking. These clubs, meeting at lunchtime and/or after school, have become very popular ways for students to earn PE credits.

[edit] The Academy

A new high school, known as the Academy of Arts and Sciences, opened on the SOTA campus in the 2005-2006 school year, in part because of complaints that SOTA's 650 students were not using the SOTA campus to its full potential (complaints that ignored the many SFUSD administrative offices located at SOTA). The Academy admits students through the normal SFUSD high school admissions process, rather than an audition process as SOTA does. Academy students receive instruction in the arts, but not as focused or as emphasized as that given to SOTA students. The Academy has become a popular high school for students interested in the arts who have not met the SOTA audition requirements, including students who hope to apply for admission to SOTA later in high school. SOTA and the Academy are slowly but surely developing into a tight ensemble of artistic development.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Newsweek: 1,200 Top U.S. Schools

[edit] External links

  • SOTA official site - Contains admission and auditions information, department pages, events calendar, and other useful resources.
  • SOTA PTSA official site - The official site of SOTA's Parent/Teacher/Student Association, contains news, information, and links about SOTA, along with performance calendars and box office information. (Updated much more frequently than the official SOTA website)
  • Academy official site - The official site of the Academy of Arts and Sciences at SOTA. Contains news, updates, information, event calendar, and more.