High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA or PVA) is a secondary school located at 4001 Stanford Street in the Montrose district of Houston, Texas. The school is a part of the Houston Independent School District.
The school educates grades nine through twelve. The school is divided into six departments: instrumental music, vocal music, dance, theater (including technical theater), visual arts, and creative writing (new to the 2011-2012 school year). Visual Arts was formed by the merging of what were formerly separate art and media departments. However, students may initially audition for multiple art areas if accepted are required to enroll in the school under only one art area, with later exceptions in rare cases, excelling students with enough credits are allowed to re-audition and with approval balance multiple art disciplines. At the end of every semester students complete a re-audition or portfolio review which does not determine whether or not they return to the school; reviews serve as part of the final grade for each art area.
Students who fail classes (Both academic and art area) are placed on art area probation which makes them ineligible to participate in art area activities. If a student repeatedly fails his or her art area or academics he will most likely be removed from the school.
HSPVA was placed as the top school in the Greater Houston Area by Children at Risk's 2009 annual ranking of high schools, and it still remains on the top ten list in 2012. Since 2003, HSPVA has had eight students named US Presidential Scholars in the Arts (Presidential Scholars Program) by the US Department of Education as selected by the National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts).
HSPVA does not automatically take in students from the surrounding neighborhood; the surrounding neighborhood is zoned to Lamar High School.
Art areas
There are six art areas: vocal music, instrumental music, dance, theatre, visual art, and creative writing. There are subdivisions within some of these art areas. Instrumental Music breaks down into band, orchestra, jazz, mariachi, and piano. Theatre breaks down into musical theatre, acting, and technical theatre. A creative writing department was added in the 2011-2012 school year, raising questions about HSPVA's size and whether the current building will be able to house a new department.
History
HSPVA was established in 1971. The HISD Office of Board Services had, by January 1971, received letters written by art organizations in Houston. Those letters advocated for the creation of an arts magnet school. The motion to establish this school was passed unanimously by the HISD school board during a period when it was divided ideologically. HSPVA was not the first magnet school in the U.S., but it was technically the first magnet school in Houston; this status was mistakenly attributed to River Oaks Elementary School.
HISD chose Ruth Denney as the school's founding director. The district asked Denney to choose between three potential sites: W. D. Cleveland Elementary School, Montrose Elementary School, and the former Temple Beth Israel building. After touring them, Denney selected the temple building and in May 1971 the final plans for HSPVA were presented to the school board.
The school moved to 4001 Stanford Street, the site of the former Montrose Elementary School, in 1982.
In the 1990s, there was a proposal to move HSPVA to the Bob R. Casey Federal Building in Downtown Houston.
Plans existed for a new HSPVA building to be located near the Gregory-Lincoln Education Center in Houston's Freedmen's Town Historical District in the Fourth Ward. The new building would have included a 2000+ seat state-of-the-art theater, updated facilities and possibly a recording studio. Construction was temporarily delayed due to the discovery of a possible American Civil War-era cemetery. In June 2007, the project page for the building displayed "CANCELLED." The site that was to have the new HSPVA instead has the new Carnegie Vanguard High School.
New campus
A block in Downtown Houston which currently holds a parking lot is a proposed new location for HSPVA. It formerly housed Sam Houston High School; at a later point the building housed the HISD headquarters. The proposed building which would be five stories and 168,000 square feet (15,600Â m2) in size, has a cost of $ $80.2 million. Ensler Architects designed the building, which is in the Houston Theater District. Groundbreaking occurred on December 14, 2014. Its opening is scheduled for 2018.
On October 13, 2016, the Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees sold the naming rights to the Kinder Foundation for a $7.5Â million donation for capital improvements to the new facility. The school's official name of Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts or Kinder HSPVA will take place when the school moves to the new downtown location. The district's original plans for HSPVA, without the deal, would not have been built partly due to inflation decreasing the value of the U.S. dollar. Some critics argued that financial mismanagement also contributed to the situation.
One HISD board member, Jolanda Jones, spoke against the deal, arguing that it was selling out the rights to name a school and that HISD was not giving attention to the non-specialty schools in the district. Jones and Diana Davila were the only board members to vote against the deal. Mike Lunceford, a board member who supported the proposal, stated that the state government was not going to give additional funding, and other trustees supported the deal. Most speakers at the board meeting, including community members and HSPVA students and parents, supported the deal.
Demographics
The demographics for the 2011 - 2012 school year are listed below.
Campus
As of 2014, many students practiced their creative arts in the school hallway due to the small size of the campus. Many Montrose-area residents attended performances even though they do not have children enrolled in the school. Students sometimes traveled to area cafes and restaurants after the official end of the school day but before additional rehearsals.
Admissions patterns
HSPVA has no actual feeder patterns. Since it is a magnet school it takes students from all over HISD and, until recently, from districts outside of HISD.
HSPVA takes students from many HISD middle schools. In addition, some students who are enrolled in private schools in the 8th grade, such as St. Mark's Episcopal School, Presbyterian School, River Oaks Baptist School, John Paul II School, and Annunciation Orthodox School, choose to go to HSPVA for high school.
Notable alumni
- Jay Alexander (magician / mentalist)
- Lisa Hartman Black (actress)
- Margarita Monet (Martirosyan) (composer, pianist, lead vocalist and founder for the hard rock/symphonic metal band Edge Of Paradise)
- Kevin Cahoon (Broadway Performer)
- Chris Carson (Classical Pianist)
- Susan Choi (novelist)
- Tamarie Cooper (Playwright and Performer)
- Bryan-Michael Cox (Grammy Award-winning songwriter/record producer, 2009 Georgia Music Hall of Fame Inductee)
- Chris Dave (drummer)
- Ryan Delahoussaye (multi-talent [violin, viola, mandolin, keyboards] member of the rock band Blue October)
- Mireille Enos (Tony Award nominee for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Emmy Award nominee for The Killing)
- Michelle Forbes (Emmy Award nominated actress The Killing, also starred in Homicide: Life On The Street, True Blood, In Treatment)
- K. Todd Freeman (Tony Award nominated actor for The Song of Jacob Zulu (Best Performance by an Actor in a Play), Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble member since 1993, and recurring role of Mr. Trick on Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
- Justin Furstenfeld (lead singer, guitarist, lyricist and frontman of the rock band "Blue October")
- Robert Glasper (prominent jazz musician; signed to Blue Note Records)
- Bianna Golodryga (TV journalist and co-anchor of Good Morning America Weekend Edition)
- Chachi Gonzales (Dancer, Choreographer)
- John Gremillion (voice actor in anime films)
- Tim Guinee
- Eric Harland Jazz Drummer
- Everette Harp (Jazz musician)
- Sara Hickman (Singer and songwriter)
- Lance Hosey (Award-winning architect and author)
- Cheryl Kelley (Photorealist painter)
- Randy Palmer Wrosiv (Visualist)
- Beyoncé Knowles (Multiple Grammy Award-winning musician, Golden Globe Nominee; dropped out to pursue career in music)
- Ralphie May (Comedian)
- Adam Mayfield (An American actor, who has been portraying Scott Chandler on the ABC soap opera All My Children since April 2009.)
- Delandria Mills (Professional Flutist, Educator, & Novelist)
- Jason Moran (Prominent jazz musician, winner of MacArthur Genius Grant)
- Mike Moreno Jazz Guitarist
- Matt Mullenweg (Founding developer of the popular open-source blogging software WordPress)
- Renée O'Connor (Actress; O'Connor graduated from another school)
- Mark Payne (Emmy Award-winning makeup artist, Multiple Award-winning filmmaker and author)
- Esteban Powell (actor in movie: Dazed and Confused and TV Show: The Cleaner)
- Robh Ruppel (Illustrator)
- Charlye Nichols (Runner-up on TV competition show Girlicious)
- Donnie Scantz (Multiple Grammy Nominated music producer and songwriter)
- Kendrick Scott (Jazz musician)
- Ronen Segev (Classical Pianist)
- Mark Seliger (Photographer)
- Walter Smith III, jazz composer and musician
- Helen Sung (Professional musician)
- Jimmy Tsai (Independent filmmaker, author of Ping Pong Playa)
- Chris Walker (R&B Singer)
- Chandra Wilson (Five-time Emmy nominated Actress)
- Harris Wittels (Comedian, writer)
- Camille Zamora (Opera singer)
- Gwendolyn Zepeda (Poet) - she ultimately graduated from Reagan High, now Heights High
Presidential Scholars in the Arts
- 2014 - Reagan Lukefahr attended HSPVA but was enrolled in the high school Drama program at University of North Carolina School of the Arts at the time the honor was awarded.
- 2009 - Devyn Tyler
- 2008 - Janye Grant
- 2006 - Tassity Johnson, Eloise Santa Maria, Rachel Goss
- 2004 - Blake C. Williams
- 2003 - Roderick R Georg
References
- Gore, Elaine Clift (2007). Talent Knows No Color: The History of an Arts Magnet High School. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc. (IAP). ISBNÂ 1593117612, 9781593117610.
Notes
Further reading
- Levine, S. (December 13, 1981). New arts school should be the envy of districts everywhere. Houston Chronicle, Section 2, 13, 17.
- Mellon, Ericka. "For HSPVA dancers, graduation is more than caps and gowns." Houston Chronicle. June 7, 2014.
External links
- Official website
- On Shaky Grounds A Houston Press article about the problems with the rebuilding
- HSPVA earns Grammy honor