The Academy experience consists of three critically important components: rigorous academic study and professional arts training, in the context of a world-class school culture, all overlapping to form our “educational model”.

The Arts

Since its inception in 1981, The Academy has provided a home to serious young artists inspired to test the limits of their potential. Our students are immersed in 3-5 hours of daily arts training in one of six disciplines: Dance, Media Arts (filmmaking, animation, and writing), Music, Musical Theatre, Theatre, and Visual Arts.

Academy alums attend the best arts colleges, universities, and conservatories, from USC and CalArts to NYU and Juilliard, and everywhere in between. (They are often supported financially by their schools as well: The 113 students comprising the classes of 2017-2019 collectively earned over $25 million in college scholarships.) Alums include Grammy winners, Broadway stars, principal dancers, award-winning filmmakers, critically acclaimed artists, and many hundreds of other successful arts professionals.

The Academics

While The Academy is famous for its arts programs, our academic coursework is just as powerful. Students engage deeply in courses designed to develop critical thinking skills across a broad array of subjects, including Women’s Literature, AP Computer Science, Global Affairs, Business and the Arts, World Religions, AP Statistics, Philosophy, and many more.

Realizing that their Academy education opens a variety of doors for them beyond high school, nearly 1/3 of Academy alums pursue non-arts paths after graduation, from business to physics to computer science and everything in between. Alums include entrepreneurs, attorneys, PhD’s, physicists, and other professionals in a wide variety of careers.

The Academy Community

We often say that there is nothing more important here than our community. Academy students and faculty alike are characterized by their passion, sense of purpose, and pursuit of excellence, and thus everyone at The Academy is deeply invested in being here. (In fact, for decades the most common word used to describe The Academy is “home”.) It is a special privilege to be surrounded, every day, by peers and mentors who have made the decision to be a part of this place. In fact, our students are never at The Academy, they are The Academy, and that identity eliminates so much of what is typically negative about the high school experience.

Hear from the Head of School

Hear from Academy Students and Parents