Perpich Center for Arts Education
The Perpich Center for Arts Education is an agency of the state of Minnesota that seeks to advance K-12 education throughout the state by teaching in and through the arts. A 33-acre (130,000 m2) campus in Golden Valley houses the center's three main components: the outreach and professional development group, Perpich Arts High School and the Perpich Arts Library. Perpich serves as a resource for arts education, students, teachers, artists and arts and youth organizations in Minnesota.
Perpich Arts High School is a tuition-free public high school delivering a comprehensive education centered in the arts. The school is open to all 11th and 12th grade students who are Minnesota residents. Students apply and audition in their 10th or 11th grade year, in one of six areas: dance, literary arts, media arts, music, theater or visual arts. With enrollment limited to 310 students, the school offers the benefit of learning in a small community while allowing students to take advantage of arts resources in the Twin Cities. Students living in the Twin Cities area usually commute, while those from the greater Minnesota area live in a supervised residence hall on campus.
Former Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich and his wife Lola provided the vision for the creation of the center following an extended stay in Vienna, Austria. Inspired by the seamless integration of arts and academics in Viennese schools, Lola and Rudy worked to create a similar model in Minnesota when Rudy was re-elected governor in 1983. After lengthy debate the idea of an arts high school was expanded to include professional development in arts education available to all Minnesota teachers and a statewide resource library.
The center was established in legislation in 1985 and was titled the Minnesota School of the Arts and Resource Center. Opening as The Minnesota Center for Arts Education in the autumn of 1989, the school began with junior students who then graduated in the spring of 1991. The school has graduated nearly 3,500 alumni, many of whom have gone on to top ranked colleges and conservatories across the country and are now leading practitioners in their arts as well as successful doctors, teachers, lawyers, scientists and community leaders.
The center is located on property that belonged to the Golden Valley Lutheran College and the majority of the center's buildings were originally part of that school. All of the buildings have been modified to accommodate the mission of the Perpich Center. A major addition to the main school building was made in 1998-99.
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