Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Kinder HSPVA, HSPVA or PVA) is a secondary school located at 790 Austin Street in the downtown district of Houston, Texas. The school is a part of the Houston Independent School District.
"High School for the Performing and Visual Arts" redirects here. For other schools, see School of Creative and Performing Arts (disambiguation).Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
The school provides education for grades nine through twelve. The school is divided into six departments: instrumental music, vocal music, dance, theater (including technical theater), visual arts, and creative writing.
HSPVA was placed as the top school in the Greater Houston Area by Children at Risk's 2009 annual ranking of high schools,[2] and it has continued to be ranked as an "A" grade or higher by Children at Risk.[3] Since 2003, HSPVA has had eight students named US Presidential Scholars in the Arts (Presidential Scholars Program) by the US Department of Education as selected by the National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts).[4]
As a Magnet school, HSPVA does not automatically enroll students from the surrounding neighborhood; the surrounding neighborhood is zoned to Northside High School.[5]
Art areas[edit]
There are six art areas: vocal music, instrumental music, dance, theatre, visual art, and creative writing. There are subdivisions within some of these art areas. Instrumental Music breaks down into band, orchestra, jazz, mariachi, and piano. Theatre breaks down into musical theatre, acting, and technical theatre.
Campus[edit]
A block in Downtown Houston is the new location for HSPVA. It formerly housed Sam Houston High School; at a later point the building housed the HISD headquarters.[25] The building is five stories and 168,000 square feet (15,600 m2) in size,[26] at a cost of $88.4 million.[27][28] Gensler Architects designed the building.[29] Groundbreaking occurred on December 14, 2014.[30]
The previous campus was on Blocks 12 and 13 of the Lockard Connor and Barziza Addition,[31] in Montrose. As of 2014, many students practiced their creative arts in the school hallway due to the small size of the campus. Many Montrose-area residents attended performances even though they do not have children enrolled in the school. Students sometimes traveled to area cafes and restaurants after the official end of the school day but before additional rehearsals.[32]
Admissions patterns[edit]
HSPVA has no actual feeder patterns. Since it is a magnet school it takes students from all over HISD,[33] and from districts outside of HISD.
HSPVA takes students from many HISD middle schools. In addition, some students who are enrolled in private schools in the 8th grade, such as St. Mark's Episcopal School, Presbyterian School, River Oaks Baptist School, John Paul II School,[34] and Annunciation Orthodox School,[35] choose to go to HSPVA for high school.[36][37][38][39]