New Facility Update
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Groundbreaking Ceremony February 23rd, 2011
10:00 a.m.
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Calendar for 2011-12
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Click here
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Principal's Message
Happy New Year and welcome to the inaugural issue of LACHSA Live!.
This will be a very exciting year for LACHSA. We break ground on our first-ever new facility in February. This new home will feature a state-of-the-art black box theatre, facilities for film and stagecraft, and 21st century classrooms equipped with 21st century technology.
In our ongoing efforts to more effectively share our stories of success beyond the LACHSA community we have created LACHSA Live! Many of us share the experience of having heard LACHSA referred to as Los Angeles' "best kept secret." LACHSA Live! will be one more vehicle through which we tell our stories. We have so many success stories at LACHSA and I hope LACHSA Live! will be an effective platform through which to the share these stories of success.
George Simpson
Principal
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Students Create 'Art of Tolerance'
A recent visit to the Museum of Tolerance in L.A. has generated beautiful, compelling, and inspiring work among LACHSA visual arts students.
All visual arts students visited the museum, where they explored and discovered the meaning of tolerance and the consequences of intolerance. While the focus was on the Holocaust and the dynamics of discrimination, topics covered extended from genocide to prejudice to teen bullying.
Elana Samuels, the museum's director of youth programs, served as an adjudicator on the jury panel. Interested seniors assisted with the exhibition as an exercise in curating, adjudicating, and installing an exhibition. Because of the serious subject matter, seniors compiled a list of quotes related to tolerance to help inspire them, then conducted a series of discussions with visual arts classes on topics related to the museum visit.
"The Art of Tolerance" is on display through January 16 at the Pasadena Armory.
Contact: Leslie Karten, senior program specialist, Visual Arts.
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In the Spotlight
A Little Bit of Broadway Opens at AT&T Theatre
 The Musical Theatre Department kicks off the New Year with a fundraiser entitled A Little Bit of Broadway on Jan. 7 and 8 at the AT&T Center Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. The shows are at 8:00 p.m. and feature the cast of Chicago performing songs, dances and dialogue from the best of Broadway.
Funded by the Josh Groban Foundation, with additional support from the Arts High Foundation, the show also includes video clips of past musicals from 2005 until the present.
Directed by Gary Soerensen, Graham Jackson, Erica Robson and Joe Schenck, the show features selections from "A Chorus Line", "Mamma Mia!", "Damn Yankees", "Ragtime", "Chess", "Into the Woods", "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", "Hair", "Songs of a New World", "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat".
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Snapshot: Dance
 Our dance students showcasing their work in West African Dance, from Winter Dance Offerings 2010.
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Theatre Students to Perform in Sacramento
In addition to preparing for season performances the Theatre Department kicks off the New Year with participation in numerous local and state-wide festivals and events. In January, LACHSA theatre students will participate in the annual Cal Poly Scene Festival and Tech Olympic. In February, 3rd-Year students will present the Sam Shepard Scene Festival and four of our seniors will compete in the annual Chapman Shakespeare Festival. In March, LACHSA students who won trophies at the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California's Fall Theatre Festival have been invited to perform in Sacramento before the California Legislatureduring California Youth in Theatre Day.
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LACHSA to Shine at Arts Schools Conference
Next week (January 10-16) begins the annual gathering of arts schools from across North America at the 30th Arts Schools Network (ASN) Annual Conference in Los Angeles and Anaheim. LACHSA is proud to be a founding member of ASN with venerable arts high schools that include La Guardia High School of Music and Art, Duke Ellington, and Orange County High School for the Arts (OCHSA) among many others.
The annual conference affords time for members to reconnect with one another, to share and learn best practices and to embrace a mission of promoting arts education. As a host school for the 30th Annual Conference, LACHSA will be a destination for attendees from arts schools around the country as our LACHSA Shymphonic Orchestra, under the baton of music director Alan Mautner will be the featured ensemble of the opening day of the conference in Anaheim.
"I am thrilled that on Tuesday, January 11th, artists and educators from around the country, Canada and the UK will have the opportunity to visit our classes and school, meet our students and network with our faculty," said Principal George Simpson. "This will also be an opportunity for our arts faculty and arts chairs to participate in arts-focused professional development throughout the week. The spotlight will also shine brightly on the talents of our students throughout the conference."
Next week's conference also reminds us that LACHSA is a nationally reputed arts and education institution, Simpson added. "We stand shoulder to shoulder with CalArts, the USC School of Music, La Guardia School for the Arts, OCHSA and other leading institutions. This is a proud moment that we should all embrace."
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64 Hours of Passion...and sleep deprivation?
From Concept to Film in 64 Hours
 Perhaps the biggest accomplishment so far for the Film Department has been the 64-Hour Film Festival held this past November. Despite its namesake, this is much more than an event showcasing the talents of LACHSA's aspiring film-makers. This is a celebration of inspiration, creativity, independence and teamwork.
For those unfamiliar, here's how it works: teams of students enrolled in advanced film classes have one full weekend -- from Friday afternoon until the following Monday morning, or 64 hours -- to write, produce, shoot, edit and submit a complete eight-minute film. Students can do little to prepare beforehand as the film genre and other required elements are revealed, literally, minutes before the 64-hour countdown begins.
What results is a relentless rush of excitement, drive, and caffeine consumption as the students scope out shooting locations, write and re-write, and alternate between acting and behind-the-camera responsibilities.
With these kinds of experiences students at LACHSA learn and develop the qualities that emancipate their thinking and create true independence. See more great work from aspiring film-makers at the film department's premiere event Moondance in May.
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From the Dean's Desk
Critical Collaboration: LACHSA as Learning Institution
If you have recently visited LACHSA on Friday mornings, you may have been surprised to discover that the classrooms in King Hall are absent of students. Since the Fall of 2009, while the young artist-scholars are rehearsing lines, revising papers, or recharging for their last day of the week, the arts chairs and the academic faculty are engaged in critical work. LACHSA uses Friday mornings for schoolwide professional development in order to address our school wide goals.
Each department has started the process of collectively identifying the critical skills and knowledge that we want our students to acquire at the end of a given course. They have discussed and argued about which assignments and assessments will demonstrate if students are able to master these essential learning outcomes. They have created and administered common assessments that prioritize critical thinking in order to create consistency in expectations. They have analyzed data
from the common assessments, identifying students' strengths and weaknesses, while being mindful of which instructional strategies or assessment tools might improve teaching and learning. Teachers' commitment to the schoolwide goals has not been limited to what happens on Friday mornings, however.
This semester, each academic teacher and arts chair selected a colleague to observe. Most often teachers are far too busy grading, preparing materials and delivering lessons to see one another in action. This year our faculty embraced the opportunity to observe a colleague and reflect.
As a new member of the administrative team last year, I was consistently amazed by the learning community. This year, as I spend more time in classrooms, I find the faculty's desire and dedication to engage in the critical work of examining and improving teaching and learning equally impressive. The teaching profession is far too valuable and our students far too important to allow for anything else.
Cara Livermore
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Focus: Alumni
ETHAN BEARMAN ('93)
LACHSA Alum and Los Angeles Philharmonic horn player, Ethan Bearman ('93) returned to LACHSA in December to kick off the LACHSA: Distinguished Alumni Series. Read more about Ethan.
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 The Parents Corner
2010-11 has proven to be a year of "Firsts" for the LACHSA Parent Council. In the few months since school began, we have successfully launched a major fundraising campaign LACHSA Walk for the Arts, raising almost $60,000 for our Arts Departments (Dance, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts); hosted a College Day for eleven prestigious colleges and universities and introduced an even wider range of merchandise to help raise money for the everyday funding needs of the Parent Council. These three initiatives have set the tone for this year's Parent Council -- one of focused energy, unified effort, and contagious enthusiasm.
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Fundraising tops $900K for LACHSA
The Arts High Foundation is grateful to dozens and dozens of foundations, corporations and organizations for their help towards this effort. Although institutional gifts comprise the majority of philanthropic revenue, Foundation efforts to develop its individual donor base is paying off. Board member Laifun Chung and husband Honorary Trustee Society Chair Ted Kotcheff secured a gift from Law & Order creator Dick Wolf to help underwrite Film Department faculty salaries. Most especially, the Foundation salutes LACHSA parents for their amazing generosity. Through our Appeal Drive and LACHSA Angel efforts, families gave and pledged roughly $250,000.
Ways to Help
Give a donation to support LACHSA arts programs as well as the Foundation if you're able. Click to make a donation.
Check with your Human Resources Department to learn if your employer has a matching gifts program, which can make your gift go twice as far.
Introduce the Arts High Foundation to your funding contacts and/or volunteer to help the Foundation with its fundraising efforts.
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