High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA or PVA for short) is a secondary school located at 4001 Stanford Street in the Montrose district of Houston, Texas. The school is a part of the Houston Independent School District.

The school serves grades nine through twelve. The school is divided into six departments: instrumental music, vocal music, dance, theater (including technical theater), visual arts, and creative writing (new to the 2011-2012 school year). Visual Arts was formed by the merging of what were formerly separate art and media departments. Students are required to audition for entry under one, and only one, art area. When they audition for the school, they can audition for more than one department and may be accepted for multiple departments but when applying must choose one. At the end of every semester students complete a re-audition or portfolio review which does not determine whether or not they return to the school; reauditions serve as a final grade for each art area.

Students who fail academics are placed on art area probation which makes them ineligible to participate in art area activities. If a student repeatedly fails his or her art area or academics he may be removed from the school.

HSPVA was placed as the top school in the Greater Houston Area by Children at Risk's 2009 annual ranking of high schools.^[1]

HSPVA does not automatically take in students from the surrounding neighborhood; the surrounding neighborhood is zoned to Lamar High School.^[2]

Art areas

There are six art areas: vocal music, instrumental music, dance, theatre, visual art, and creative writing. There are subdivisions within some of these art areas. Instrumental Music breaks down into band, orchestra, jazz, and piano. Theatre breaks down into musical theatre, acting, and technical theatre. Starting in 2011 there will be a creative writing department, raising questions about HSPVA's size and whether the current building will be able to house a new department.

History

HSPVA was established in 1971^[3] on the site previously occupied by Congregation Beth Israel at the corner of Austin and Holman Streets. The school moved to 4001 Stanford Street, the site of the former Montrose Elementary School, in 1981.

In the 1990s there was a proposal to move HSPVA to the Bob R. Casey Federal Building in Downtown Houston.^[4]

Plans existed for a new HSPVA building to be located near the Gregory-Lincoln Education Center in Houston's Freedmen's Town Historical District in the Fourth Ward. The new building would have included a 2000+ seat state-of-the-art theater, updated facilities and possibly a recording studio. Construction was temporarily delayed due to the discovery of a possible American Civil War-era cemetery. In June 2007, the project page for the building displayed "CANCELLED".^[5] The site that was going to have the new HSPVA will instead have the new Carnegie Vanguard High School.^[6]

A block in Downtown Houston which currently holds a parking lot is a proposed new location for HSPVA. It formerly housed Sam Houston High School; at a later point the building housed the HISD headquarters.^[7]

Demographics

As of 2007, of all of the Houston ISD high schools, HSPVA was the only one that was majority White American.^[8]

Admissions patterns

HSPVA has no actual feeder patterns. Since it is a magnet school it takes students from all over HISD and, until recently, from districts outside of HISD.^[9]

HSPVA takes students from many HISD middle schools. In addition, some students who are enrolled in private schools in the 8th grade, such as St. Mark's Episcopal School, Presbyterian School, River Oaks Baptist School, John Paul II School, First Baptist Academy and Annunciation Orthodox School[6], choose to go to HSPVA for high school.^[10]

Notable alumni

• Lisa Hartman Black (actress)^[11]
• Helen Childress (screenwriter of the 1995 romantic comedy film Reality Bites)^[12]
• Susan Choi (novelist)^[13]
• Mireille Enos (Tony Award nominee)^[14]
• Justin Furstenfeld (lead singer, guitarist, lyricist and frontman of the rock band "Blue October")^[11]
• Ryan Delahoussaye (multi-talent [violin, viola, mandolin, keyboards] member of the rock band Blue October^[11])
• Robert Glasper (prominent jazz musician; signed to Blue Note Records)^[11][14]
• Bianna Golodryga (TV journalist and co-anchor of Good Morning America)
• John Gremillion (voice actor in anime films)^[13]
• Everette Harp (Jazz musician)^[11][13]
• Sara Hickman (Singer and songwriter)^[11][14]
• Beyoncé Knowles (Multiple Grammy Award winning musician, Golden Globe Nominee actress and model for House of Deréon - dropped out to pursue career in music)^[11]
• Bryan-Michael Cox (Grammy Award winning songwriter/record producer, 2009 Georgia Music Hall of Fame Inductee) ^[11][14]
• Jason Moran (Prominent jazz musician)^[11][13][14]
• Adam Mayfield (An American actor, who has been portraying Scott Chandler on the ABC soap opera All My Children since April 2009.) ^[15]
• Matt Mullenweg (Founding developer of the popular open-source blogging software WordPress)^[16]
• Renée O'Connor (Actress; O'Connor graduated from another school)^[11]
• Donnie Scantz (Multiple Grammy Nominated music producer and songwriter)^[17]
• Kendrick Scott (Jazz musician)^[11][13]
• Mark Seliger (Photographer)^[11]
• Ronen Segev (Classical Pianist)^[18]
• Helen Sung (Professional musician)^[11][14]
• Jimmy Tsai (Independent filmmaker, author of Ping Pong Playa)^[19]
• Chandra Wilson (Emmy nominated Actress)^[13][14]
• Kevin Cahoon (Broadway Performer)
• Hannah Jones (America's Next Top Model 2011 final 3)^[20]
• Wendee Lee Curtis (Broadway Performer, Professional TV Host/Broadcaster)

References

External links

• HSPVA Website
• On Shaky Grounds A Houston Press article about the problems with the rebuilding
• HSPVA earns Grammy honor