The High School of Performing Arts, more formally known as The School of Performing Arts: A Division of the
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing ArtsFiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, also officially known as "H.S. 485" and informally as "LaGuardia Arts" , is a high school specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts, located near Martin Luther King, Jr...
, informally known as "PA", was a
publicIn most of the world, excluding England and Wales and some Commonwealth countries, a public school is an educational institution that is funded with tax revenue and most commonly administered by a local government or government agency...
alternativeAlternative school , is the name used in some parts of the world to describe an institution which provides part of alternative education. It is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional...
high schoolHigh school is the name used in some parts of the world, particularly in Scotland, Northern America and Oceania, to describe an institution that provides all or part of secondary education...
in
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, USA that existed from 1948 through 1984.
Early years
The school was created in 1947 by educator Franklin J. Keller, using staff and administrators from Metropolitan High School, a vocational school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Under Keller's stewardship, it offered music and speech programs in addition to the traditional "trade" skills.
Occupying a disused 1894 public school building on West 46th Street in Times Square, the new school offered programs in Music, Dance, Drama, and, for a time, Photography.
Threatened existence
Beginning in the mid 1950s, the New York City administration regularly announced plans to move PA out of its ancient building and into new quarters. These plans included joining the current PA student population (around 450-500) with another student body from another school in a newly constructed building. A site in the then-Lincoln Square area was chosen, then later moved to the newly-developed Lincoln Center complex. A grounds breaking ceremony at the second Lincoln Center complex was held in 1958, with the Mayor of New York City attending. The Mayor and City Council made promises to alumni, students and to the New York press that the new site would be ready to house students by 1964. These and all other previous announcements never reached past the planning stages. It wasn't until the early 1970s that construction actually began on a new school on a third site located behind the Lincoln Center complex. The new school would include students from PA's "sister school", the High School of Music & Art, located in Upper Manhattan. Performing Arts High School and The High School Of Music & Art were known as "sister schools" because they were always one school, Fiorello La Guardia High School, which received one single funding allocation, with two separate student bodies and faculty split in two different locations.
PA continued to audition, educate and graduate hundreds of students during its decades of threatened existence. After grounds were broken for the second time on the new building in 1973, sittting on the third allocated site, all work stopped due to New York City's budget crisis, and did not begin again until the early 1980s.
ALUMNI RALLY TO SAVE SCHOOL: Performing Arts High School and Music & Art High School had become two distinctly different schools; one was a performing arts school, preparing students to become professional stage performers, the other was a fine arts school, preparing students to become professional gallery and concert artists. Alumni Carol (Rubin) Gordon and Nick Gordon, members of the parent's association,attempted to end the constant threat to PA's survival in 1978 by beginning the school's first Alumni Association, with the goal of lobbying for the continued separate existence of PA. The Alumni Association met opposition, however, from The Board of Education's Chancellor Frank J. Macchiarola (who oversaw the "marriage into one single Fiorello La Guardia house" of sister schools PA and MA in the first place) as well as from other school administrators.
LANDMARKING TACTIC: Ms. Gordon's next attempt to preserve PA was to enlist the help of an architect, who was also a member of the parent's association, in beginning the process to declare the school building a New York City Landmark. In 1982 the building
was ultimately declared a NYC Landmark but it was too late to save PA, as construction on the new building had begun again in earnest. In the fall of 1984 Performing Arts, and its sister school Music and Art, were combined. Performing Arts, a school which had 450-500 students in the 1950s, at the original site, and which had grown to 600-800 students at 46th street, lost its quirky identity in a massive educational complex three times its size.
The end of PA
In June 1984 the last graduating class from the "old building" departed. In September of that year, students moved to the Music & Art site and the two "sister schools" were finally united in one building. Now, the two schools were finally identified to the public eye as being, "The Fiorello La Guardia High School Of Music & Art And The Performing Arts". Performing Arts High School had finally vacated its old building, joining students from The High School of Music & Art, and become one single entity.
In winter 1988, the vacant PA building at 120 West 46th Street caught fire during renovation. Its facade and several exterior walls survived; the interior needed complete reconstruction. It now exists as the
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of International CareersJacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School is a high school located in Midtown Manhattan. It is named after the former First Lady of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It is located at 120 W 46th Street in Manhattan, a building formerly housing the High School of Performing Arts.JKO is a...
.
Life After PA
In 1992, Barry Plaxen, a 1955 alumni from the Music department, began holding private reunions with former classmates from the years 1954 through 1956. Three years later he formed
PA The First Ten (PATFT), serving the needs of PA alumni from the years 1949 through 1959. Working with the LaGuardia School's
AFLAG alumni association, PATFT co-sponsored the 1998 ceremony unveiling the Landmark of New York site plaque installed in the facade of the original building on 46th Street.
In 2000, Plaxen and PATFT joined Ellen Lerner and Roanne Genge Patterson, 1966 alumni from the Drama department, to form the
School of Performing Arts Association, which described itself as such:
"We have established this association to continue to fulfill Dr. Keller's vision by providing for ourselves as adults the same kind of encouragement, nurturing and opportunities to fulfill our own artistic and creative potential, as was given us by our beloved teachers and mentors."
Since 2000, the 46th Street building has served as the site of a yearly celebration welcoming alumni, faculty and friends of PA, for weekends of socializing, reminiscing, and performances.
Upcoming Events
On June 12-13, 2009, the 61st anniversary of the formation of PA will be celebrated at the 46th Street site. Additionally, anniversaries for the following classes will be noted: 1949, 1954, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1979 and 1984. More information can be found at the
official PA Alumni website.
The school in film
In 1980 the motion picture
Fame, based loosely on student and faculty life at PA, was released, In 2009 a "remake" of
FameFame is a American musical film which is a loose remake of the 1980 film of the same title. It was directed by Kevin Tancharoen and written by Allison Burnett. It was released on September 25, 2009 in the USA, Canada and the UK.-Auditions:...
was released.
Notable alumni
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