The Baltimore School for the Arts is a public arts high school/secondary school in Baltimore, Maryland, United States and is part of its Baltimore City Public Schools system. Established in 1979, The Baltimore School for the Arts offers art concentrations in vocal music, instrumental music, theater acting, theater production, dance, visual arts and film. The high school has produced numerous "Presidential Scholars" in the Arts and its students have gone on to attend major conservatories and Ivy League Schools. In 2016, the BSA was named a Silver Medal School by the U.S. News and World Report magazine and was ranked 1,560th nationally and 44th in the state of Maryland.
History
In 1979, the President of the Board of School Commissioners authored a Charter creating the Baltimore School for the Arts. In the form of a resolution of the School Board, this Charter followed many years of effort to create an arts high school, including a 1978 recommendation of a special Task Force appointed and given strong support by then Mayor William Donald Schaefer,, ; . The BSA was created as part of the Baltimore City Public Schools system, however the charter provided the BSA with the structure and the authority to design and implement policies and programs necessary to be successful in its mission as a pre-professional arts high school. The charter stated "that it differ from other Baltimore city high schools by training students with potential for careers in the performing and visual arts."
Mission
The Baltimore School for the Arts is a school that intends to prepare its students for careers in the arts. The school provides qualified students with training in one of five arts disciplines: music, visual arts, theatre, dance, or film in combination with a comprehensive, college preparatoryacademic program. The theater and music majors are split into two groups each: for the theater department, there is both acting and Stage Design and Production, and the music department is split into vocal and instrumental. A further mission of the school is to serve as an arts resource for the Baltimore community by offering performances, educational workshops and extensive after-school training in the arts to Baltimore children. This is offered through a program called TWIGS, which is open to 2nd–8th graders.
Academics
The Baltimore School for the Arts is a four-year public high school that provides young people with intensive, pre-professional training in the arts within the context of a comprehensive, college preparatory academic curriculum. Working with a distinguished faculty, students pursue any one of four disciplines—the visual arts, music, theater, dance and film—in an environment that emphasizes professionalism and scholarship. About 400 students attend the school, coming from public and private schools in and around Baltimore. Students are accepted by an audition or portfolio review only– without regard to grades or academic performance. Rising 9th and 10th graders may apply to the school.
In Media
The school in the film 2006 filmStep Up was a fictionalized version of BSA, called The Maryland School for the Arts. There are some significant differences between the institution portrayed in the film and the real school, and some parts of the movie were filmed in the school.
The Maryland School for the Arts also provided the setting for the 2008 film sequel to Step Up, Step Up 2the Streets although most of the actual filming of the movie did not take place inside BSA.
