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Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts
| Grand Arts High School | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
450 North Grand Avenue Los Angeles, California United States | |
| Coordinates | 34°03′35″N 118°14′39″W / 34.0595965°N 118.2443026°W / 34.0595965; -118.2443026Coordinates: 34°03′35″N 118°14′39″W / 34.0595965°N 118.2443026°W / 34.0595965; -118.2443026 |
| Information | |
| Type | Public |
| Established | September 9, 2009 |
| School district | Los Angeles Unified School District |
| Principal | Ken Martinez |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Enrollment | 1,527 (2015-16)[1] |
| Campus | Urban |
| Nickname | Grand Arts, VAPA, Number 9, |
| Website | Official website |
The Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts, known unofficially as Grand Arts High School, is a performing arts public high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is located on the site of the old Fort Moore at the corner of Grand Avenue and Cesar E. Chavez Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to Chinatown. Grand Arts anchors the north end of Los Angeles' "Grand Avenue Cultural Corridor," home to Disney Concert Hall, the Music Center, Colburn School of Music, Museum of Contemporary Art, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and The Broad Art Museum. [2][3] The school's distinctive architecture has made the facility noteworthy beyond the Los Angeles area.
The school admits 400 incoming freshmen students each year with each Dance, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts accounting for 100 students each. Students are admitted via lottery which takes place each Spring. Admission requires no prior training or auditions and there is no tuition or fees.[4]
The school's principal is Ken Martinez and the school's Executive Artistic Director is Kim M. Bruno (former principal of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and Professional Performing Arts School).
Contents
1 Programs
1.1 Dance Academy
1.2 Music Academy
1.3 Theatre Academy
1.4 Visual Arts Academy
2 Alumni
3 History
4 Demographics
5 Facilities
5.1 Architecture
5.2 Administration
5.3 Library
5.4 Theatre and Visual Arts
5.5 Theatre/Concert Hall
5.6 Music Academy
5.7 Cafeteria
5.8 Gym and Dance Studios
6 References
7 External links
Programs
The school offers a full range of standard academic programs as well as specialty programs in four arts academies:
Dance Academy
Dance is a universal form of communication and expression. It reflects the values, traditions, thoughts, feelings and imaginings of societies, individuals, and cultures. Dance is the birthright of every human, and a celebration of humanity. People have danced since the dawn of time, and have passed down their dance traditions in both formal and informal ways.
At Grand Arts, we believe that dance is an integral part of a students' education. As such, it is our goal to provide a rigorous, standards-based dance curriculum which allows our students to dance, create dances, observe and appreciate dance, and make connections to, with and through dance to the world around them and—ultimately—to themselves. Students in the Dance Academy take classes in: Ballet, Modern, Tap, Hip Hop, Cultural Dance, and Choreography.
Music Academy
The music department is committed to preparing our students to pursue their dreams in music, wherever those dreams may lead. All music students receive training in theory, sight reading, technical studies, history, and performance. Our curriculum is anchored in the California Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards and augmented by extended partnerships with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Opera, adjudicated festivals, and master classes with numerous renowned visiting Master Artists.
In the Music Academy, students can take classes in Vocal and Instrumental Performance. Music Theory, Music Composition, Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Jazz Band, String Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra, Concert Choir, Vocal Jazz, Vocal Technique, and Guitar are all part of the Grand Arts Curriculum.
Theatre Academy
The Theatre Academy offers students a variety of classes that develop skills in acting and directing through a well-defined, four-year acting program. The scope and sequence of each year’s curriculum is designed to propel students into higher levels of acting achievement, regardless of initial experience.
Based in the California Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards, the depth of study in each grade level has been shaped to include work that begins with basic techniques in discovery of self through classes that study how movement, voice production and a freeing of the inhibitions of the mind and body in Improvisation classes can enhance performance.
Evidence of our students’ skills and confidence levels can be seen in the Concert Hall stage and Black Box Theatre productions, as well as numerous successes in local and national competitions.
The Grand Arts Theatre curriculum includes: Acting 1-4, Movement, Improvisation 1 & 2, Voice and Diction 1 & 2, Directing, Audition Technique, Career Management, and Stagecraft.
Visual Arts Academy
The Visual Arts program is designed for students to find and develop their voices as artists. We are committed to the untrained beginner with a lifelong desire to study art as well as to those who have had opportunity and come to us with impressive portfolios. The passion to create is the common thread that ties our academy together. A student who graduates in visual arts will have created a visual arts portfolio suitable for achieving college and/or career path goals.
Our award-winning teachers serve as mentors, instructors, career counselors and living examples of artists with a strong belief and commitment to education—the passing of knowledge and mastery of the arts and academia to the next generation. Our state-of-the-art facilities afford students safe, clean, spacious environments in which to create and learn.
Students take classes in Principals of Drawing, Ceramics, Painting, Video Production, Digital Design, Photo, Life Drawing, in addition to the multitude of AP Art classes offered year-round.
Alumni
Some of Grand Arts' most notable alumni include Ashton Sanders, Cori Broadus, Mason Alexander Park, Wayne Mackins Harris, and Lydia Night. Grand Arts students have gone off to attend Stanford, Harvard, USC, New York University, The Ailey School, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon University, Fordham University, Pace University, UC Berkeley, and several other private and public universities across the world. As of 2019, Grand Arts currently has a 99% graduation rate.
History
When the school opened on September 9, 2009, it was known as Central Los Angeles High School #9. Suzanne Blake was its first principal. In June, 2011, the school board renamed the school in honor of then-former school district superintendent Ramon C. Cortines.[5] As of 2014, it has been unofficially called Grand Arts High School.
The school has been featured in several commercials, films, and photo shoots. In 2015, the school released a music video called, "Dream It! Do It!" which was directed and choreographed by Debbie Allen. The music video was produced and conceived by the school's principal, Kim Bruno. "Dream It! Do It!" featured both Grand Arts and Debbie Allen Dance Academy students showcasing the importance of the arts in the Los Angeles community.
Norman Isaacs, the school's former principal, resigned in protest over what he termed inadequate funding for the school.[6]
Past productions at Grand Arts include: the Dance Academy's yearly Spring Dance Concert and Nutcracker, Annual Musicales by the Music Academy, Once on This Island, In The Heights, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Noises Off, The Glass Menagerie, Steel Magnolias, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hello Dolly, Guys and Dolls, Dreamgirls, and the school's inaugural production of Peter Pan.
In addition to the wide range season, there are five visual art exhibitions produced by the Visual Arts Academy each school year.
Demographics
| White | Latino | Asian | African American | Pacific Islander | American Indian | Two or more races |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11% | 68% | 11% | 10% | 0.1% | 1% | 0.1% |
According to US News and World Report, 89% of Ramon C. Cortines' student body is "of color," with 77% of the student body coming from economically disadvantaged households, determined by student eligibility for California's Reduced-price meal program.[7]
Facilities
The school occupies a 9.9 acre block in downtown Los Angeles at the north end of the city's "Grand Avenue Cultural Corridor," which also includes the Disney Concert Hall, the Los Angeles Music Center, the Colburn School of Music, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Broad Art Museum. The facility includes seven buildings totaling 238,000 square feet (22,110 m2). The final costs for construction were $171.9 million and for the entire project $232 million[6][8]
Architecture
The facility was designed by the project team of HMC Architects (Architect-of-Record) and the Austrian firm Coop Himmelb(l)au (Designer-of-Record). They were selected through a design competition in September 2002. In 2006, ground was broken on the school.[9]
The design has been controversial, with descriptions such as "bold", "unconventional", its forms "stunning" and "a testament to the provocative power of art;" its interior spaces given "a surprisingly rich range of personalities", "prosaic," "almost barracks-like;" its classrooms "confined and airless," and the cafeteria "cave-like."[10][9][11] Its most iconic form, a tower over the performing arts building, is a unique and highly visible sculptural form, intended to provide a point of identification and a symbol for the arts in the city.[10] It was envisioned to be a public space accessed via the ramp that winds around the tower with a viewing platform on top. School officials objected and so it remains inaccessible and a non-functional sculptural form.[10]
An excerpt from Hawthorne's "Starchitecture High" states:
"What…the school has taught [its students] about the architecture is not so much what they like and dislike about the design, or about what works and what doesn't, but rather the surprising and ultimately thrilling ways in which their high school campus reminds them of themselves and their peers. Like them it is something of a proud outcast: gangly, dreamy, and beautiful at the same time, trying to make its way in a culture that prizes familiarity over strangeness and sameness over individuality. For a teenager who dreams of becoming an artist or a dancer, and has maybe not always found that ambition popular or easily understood by others in his family or neighborhood, what kind of campus could be better?"[12]
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Main Entry
Performing Arts Wing Entry
N. Grand Ave. facade
The campus has seven buildings, an outdoor swimming pool, and a full-sized athletic playfield.
Administration
Building #1 includes the main entry and administration offices as well as the Dance Academy.
Library
Building #2 is the cone-shaped building that incorporates the library.
Theatre and Visual Arts
Building #3 includes the Visual Arts Academy and the Theatre Academy.
Theatre/Concert Hall
Building #4 includes a 927-seat performing arts theater used for assemblies, plays, and concerts. This is the building that is shaped in the form of the number 9 for the school's old name CLAHS#9. This building also includes the Black Box Theater which can accommodate 250 people. The tower and spiraling form sit on top of this building and a main public entry for after-hours use are located at the west corner of the site.
Music Academy
Building #5 includes the Music Academy.
Cafeteria
Building #6 includes the kitchen and eating area for the students. It is located in the center of the campus.
Gym and Dance Studios
Building #7 includes the Gymnasium, locker rooms, support spaces, dance studios, an air-conditioned indoor basketball court, a weight room, and a parking garage.
References
^ "Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved December 17, 2018..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ "LAUSD Breaks Ground on Central Los Angeles Area New High School #9". Los Angeles Unified School District. September 8, 2006. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
^ "Central L.A. Area New H.S. #9" (PDF). Los Angeles Unified School District. March 2006. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
^ School webpage. Retrieved 2015-11-01
^ School Board press release, June 14, 2011. Retrieved 2015-10-30
^ ab Blume, Howard (July 14, 2013). "L.A.'s arts high school loses another principal". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
^ https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/california/districts/los-angeles-unified-school-district/ramon-c-cortines-school-of-visual-and-performing-2707/student-body
^ Coop Himmelb(l)au’s eclectic design for High School #9 in Los Angeles is ambitious. But does it succeed?, Architectural Record, January 2010. Retrieved 2015-11-01
^ ab Pass/fail for L.A.;s new arts school, Los Angeles Times, May 31, 2009. Retrieved 2015-10-31
^ abc CRIT> SCHOOL FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, Archpaper 09.29.2009. Retrieved 2015-10-31
^ A Towering absurdity, Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2008. Retrieved 2015-10-31
^ School district website: History and Grand Architecture. Retrieved 2015-10-31
External links
- "The Central Los Angeles Area High School #9", Arcspace.com, June 2, 2008
- Before and After: A bird's-eye view of 8 new LA schools
- Dezeen: High School #9 by Coop Himmelb(l)au
- Architecture Week article 31-August-2011 (includes architectural drawings)
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