“N.M. School for the Arts poised to prep teens for college, careers”
Santa Fe New Mexican; by Robert Nott; 8-16-10
About 140 teens showed up in a warm, crowded gym Monday to sign up for classes at the new, state-funded New Mexico School for the Arts in downtown Santa Fe.The school, in the making since 2005, officially starts today with a morning assembly featuring actress Shirley MacLaine and Mayor David Coss as guest speakers, followed by a half-day of classes. Students this year are in grades nine through 11; seniors will be added next year.
Housed in the former St. Francis Cathedral School on the corner of East Alameda Street and Paseo de Peralta, the school is drawing students from around New Mexico, although 68 percent of the initial enrollment comes from the Santa Fe area.
“It’s specifically geared toward anyone who wants to turn art into a career, and that’s what I want to do,” explained 15-year-old Chris Iannucci as she stood near the front of the line to register for theater classes Monday.
Students will study traditional subjects such as math, English and history while focusing on one of four arts-related curriculums: theater, dance, music or visual arts.
The ultimate goal is to prepare students for college and an arts career.
“I’m excited, enthused and energized,” Jim Ledyard, head of school, said as students swirled around him, delivering paperwork to an office or a registration table. “I expect that, for many of these students, this will be the first time they can concentrate in-depth on their art form.”
Ledyard previously worked 11 years as head of the independent Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, N.C. He and his arts chair directors — Joey Chavez (theater) Adam McKinney (dance), Ben Klemme (music) and Cristina González (visual arts) — joined other teachers and staff — about 25 in all — in welcoming and signing in students Monday morning.
Though a few students and parents complained of the heat in the cramped gym, the mood was otherwise upbeat, with teens eagerly greeting familiar faces and parents — more moms than dads, it seemed — beaming with pride.
“I’m very pleased,” Nina Simmons said of her daughter, Taos resident Maggie Carson. “It’s a privilege for her to be going here.”
Carson — whose brightly colored hair and clothes suggested a moving work of art, which is fitting given she’s studying visual arts at the school — said, “It’s going to be amazing to be totally immersed in art.”
Another mom, Polly Montoya of Santa Fe, said the school is bound to be a good fit for her 16-year-old son, David James Dean III (she’s a big fan of the late actor James Dean).
“He was a real rambunctious kid,” she said of her son as he filled out paperwork. “Down in Albuquerque, I got him a $20 guitar. I put it in his hands and he taught himself how to play. This is his passion; this school can jump-start his career. I think he is destined to do great things.”
Chance Willey (his parents got married in Las Vegas, Nev., it was explained), 15, is taking the theater program at New Mexico School for the Arts. He said he’d been acting since he was 5 years old, and this school “seemed like the logical thing to do now.”
Roy Rogosin, director of the school’s choir, was manning the literature table in the gym, filling in for an English teacher who had stepped away.
“This is very exciting stuff,” he said as students collected textbooks. “I wish I were on the other side of this table. This is the sort of place that young art students dream of — and if they don’t dream of it, they should!”
The institute is the first residential charter school in the state, and tuition is free, though some students may pay boarding costs on a sliding scale. Unlike most such schools, admission is not by lottery, but by audition. About 250 students auditioned last March for the school.
Roughly 20 students will board at Cartwright Hall on the New Mexico School for the Deaf campus while another 20 or so will commute daily from nearby communities, including Española, Las Vegas, N.M., and Albuquerque.
The school’s annual budget is about $2 million, which is supported by legislative startup funds of $525,000 as well as private and corporate donations. Catherine Oppenheimer, one of the founding committee members of the school and the founding artistic director of the National Dance Institute of New Mexico, said the board will be very busy raising funds to grow it into a model school for the state and country.
“I think there’s a tremendous amount of energy and hope and excitement behind the school now,” she said. “This state has such a unique cultural heritage and arts history — this makes so much sense. Why shouldn’t we be nurturing, developing and growing our own artists, and why should access to that kind of education be given only to students who can afford it privately? New Mexico can do this.”
The school has a four-year lease at the downtown site, with an option to extend an additional year, but both Ledyard and Oppenheimer said it will have to find or build its own campus by that time to fulfill all of its potential.
Ledyard said the school will probably add another 75 students next year, moving toward its eventual cap of 300 pupils.
According to Adelma Hnasko, director of admissions for the school, the admission process for the 2011/2012 school year will begin in September. Details can be found on the school’s website, www.nmschoolforthearts.org.
Click here for link to full article by Robert Nott