- Source: Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts
The Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, is a public alternative high school in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1982 and is part of the San Francisco Unified School District. It is currently located at 555 Portola Drive, San Francisco CA 94131.
History
For many years, Ruth Asawa, sculptor and advocate for arts in education, as well as others had campaigned to start a public high school in San Francisco devoted to the arts, with the ultimate goal of such a school to be located in the arts corridor in the heart of San Francisco's Civic Center.
At its inception in 1982, School of the Arts was created as a part of J. Eugene McAteer High School, on its present site on Portola Drive. Ten years later, in 1992, the school - now a full-fledged public school separate from McAteer - was relocated to the former SFUSD Frederick Burke Elementary School at 700 Font Boulevard on the campus of San Francisco State University. Due to the dissolution of McAteer High School in 2002, SOTA was offered to return to the more appropriate, fully equipped high school site.
In 2010, School of the Arts was renamed the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts in honor of Ruth Asawa. In 2011, the school was recognized as a "California Distinguished School" by the California Department of Education as one of the state's most "exemplary and inspiring" public schools, demonstrating significant gains in narrowing the achievement gap among its students.
In 2005 a new public high school, the Academy of Arts and Sciences, was started and shares the McAteer campus with SOTA. Although it shares the campus with the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, it is a completely separate school. Now called The Academy - San Francisco @ McAteer, it admits students through the normal high school admissions process.
Arts and academics
Ruth Asawa School of the Arts students take visual and performing art classes daily in addition to a standard high school curriculum. There are eight art departments with ten strands. The departments are:
Architecture and Design
Dance — Conservatory Dance or World Dance
Media and Film
Music — Classical Instrumental, Contemporary Instrumental, Vocal, or World Music
Technical Theater — Stagecraft or Costume and Fashion Design
Theater — Acting, Musical Theater
Visual Arts — Drawing, Painting, Digital, and Sculpture
Writing - Creative Writing or Spoken Arts
Admissions process
Acceptance into the school is based on an audition process for the approximately 175 spots available for incoming Freshmen. All students who complete the audition assignment are offered an opportunity to audition in person for admission to SOTA the following year. Auditioning students are admitted based on audition results; no academic criteria are used.
Alumni
Alfredo Gonzalez, US Army Veteran
Aya Cash, actress
Margaret Cho, comedian, actress, fashion designer, author, and singer-songwriter
Natalie Cressman, musician
Lena Hall, actress, singer and songwriter
Peregrine Honig, artist, filmmaker
Crystal Lee, beauty pageant title holder
MK Nobilette, singer
Sam Rockwell, actor
Salvador Santana, instrumentalist
Joe Talbot, filmmaker
Jesse Thorn, radio show host
Miranda Lee Richards, singer-songwriter
Aisha Tyler, actress, comedian, director and talk show host
References
External links
Official website
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Sam Rockwell
- Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts
- Ruth Asawa
- Asawa
- Twin Peaks (San Francisco)
- Salvador Santana
- San Francisco Fountain
- List of neighborhoods in San Francisco
- Joe Talbot (filmmaker)
- List of Lowell High School (San Francisco) alumni
- Aisha Tyler