California State Summer School for the Arts

The California State Summer School for the Arts, commonly known as CSSSA ("SEE-SUH"), is a rigorous four-week, pre-professional visual and performing arts training program for high school students held each summer at the California Institute of the Arts [1]. The goal of CSSSA is to provide a supportive environment in which students acquire experience and training that extends beyond the practice and improvement of aesthetics and technique. Artistic disciplines offered by the program include: animation, creative writing, dance, film and video, music (including vocal arts), theatre arts, and visual arts. Its purpose is to provide a training ground for future artists who wish to pursue careers in the arts and entertainment industries in California. Admitted students are designated California Arts Scholars, honored throughout the state’s fifty-eight counties. Upon completion of the program, the students are awarded a Governor's Medallion, the highest distinction in California for artistically talented students. Founded in 1987, CSSSA is a California State agency funded through a unique public/private partnership . [2]

Admission to the program is granted primarily to California state high school students, and up to twenty students from outside of California. The main criteria for admission is an applicant’s potential for further professional development in the arts or creative fields after the end of the program. It's determined through an audition, portfolio review, screening, and teacher recommendations. Approximately one out of three applicants are accepted, parallel to the acceptance rate of CalArts. [3]

During the early 1980s, California was facing increasing competition from other states in the arts and entertainment industry, which is its third-largest source for tax revenue. Film, television, and recording studio complexes, traditionally built in California, were being built in Florida, Texas, among other places. With diminishing interest in the commercial art sector, many of California's non-profit fine arts institutions and the state’s educational community were feeling the effects of a financial backlash. [4]

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