Baltimore School for the Arts | |
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Address | |
712 Cathedral Street at West Madison Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201 |
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Information | |
School type | Public, Magnet, Art |
Motto | "Where the Arts Change Kids' Lives" |
Founded | 1979 |
School district | Baltimore City Public Schools |
Superintendent | Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises |
School number | 415 |
Director | Dr. Chris Ford |
Grades | 9–12 |
Enrollment | 389 (2014) |
Area | Urban |
Website | www |
The Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) is a public arts high school located in Baltimore, Maryland, and is part of its public school system. BSA offers art concentrations in vocal music, instrumental music, theater acting, theater production, dance, and visual arts. The school has produced numerous "Presidential Scholars" in the Arts and its students have gone on to attend major conservatories and Ivy League Schools.
In 2016, BSA was named a Silver Medal School by the U.S. News and World Report, and was ranked 1,560th nationally and 44th in the state of Maryland (first overall in Baltimore City).
In 1979, the President of the Board of School Commissioners authored a Charter creating the Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA). In the form of a resolution of the School Board, this Charter followed many years of effort to create an arts high school, including a 1978 recommendation of a special Task Force appointed and given strong support by then Mayor William Donald Schaefer, (1921-2011), [served 1971-1986]; [later Governor of Maryland, 1987-1995, Comptroller of Maryland, 1999-2007]. The BSA was created as part of the Baltimore City Public Schools system, however the charter provided the BSA with the structure and the authority to design and implement policies and programs necessary to be successful in its mission as a pre-professional arts high school. The charter stated "that it differ from other Baltimore city high schools by training students with potential for careers in the performing and visual arts."
The Baltimore School for the Arts is a school that intends to prepare its students for careers in the arts. The school provides qualified students with training in one of four arts disciplines: music (vocal/instrumental), visual arts, theatre (acting/theater production), or dance in combination with a comprehensive, college preparatory academic program. The theater and music majors are split into two groups each: for the theater department, there is both acting and theater production, and the music department is split into vocalists and instrumentalists.