School for Creative and Performing Arts | |
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SCPA Logo
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Address | |
108 W. Central Parkway Cincinnati, Ohio United States |
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Coordinates | 39°6′38″N 84°30′36″W / 39.11056°N 84.51000°WCoordinates: 39°6′38″N 84°30′36″W / 39.11056°N 84.51000°W |
Information | |
School type |
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Motto | "Find Your Voice" |
Opened | 1973 |
School district | Cincinnati Public Schools |
Principal | Michael Owens |
Grades | Kindergarten–12 |
Age range | 5–17 |
Enrollment | 1,300 (2010) |
Campus | Urban |
Nickname | Raiders |
Website | www.scpa.cps-k12.org |
The School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) is a magnet arts school in Cincinnati in the US state of Ohio, and part of the Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS). SCPA was founded in 1973 as one of the first magnet schools in Cincinnati and became the first school in the country to combine a full range of arts studies with a complete college-preparatory academic program for elementary through high school students. Of the approximately 350 arts schools in the United States, SCPA is one of the oldest and has been cited as a model for both racial integration and for arts programs in over 100 cities.
SCPA had three different homes in its first four years, including a makeshift campus in the Mount Adams neighborhood and another in Roselawn. In 1976, it occupied the Old Woodward High School building, on the site of one of the oldest public schools in the country. The school rose to national prominence in the 1980s, but was nearly closed in the 1990s following a series of scandals, leadership struggles, and an arson fire which destroyed the auditorium. Its reputation recovered in the years that followed and in 2009–10, the school was featured in the MTV reality series Taking the Stage, filmed at the school and featuring SCPA students. In 2010 SCPA combined with the Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment to create the first kindergarten through twelfth grade (about ages five to seventeen) arts school and first private sector/public arts school in the US. A new facility in Over-the-Rhine was championed by the late Cincinnati Pops Maestro Erich Kunzel and funded through a unique public-private partnership that raised over $31 million in private contributions to match public funding. The building features specialized facilities for the arts and three separate theaters and is the key to redevelopment plans for the area.