Learning at A3

OUR VISION:
“Springfield Academy of Arts & Academics combines high academic standards with professional-level arts experiences to propel learning, engage passion, and empower transformation.”

OUR MISSION:
The Springfield Academy of Arts & Academics will:

• Stimulate higher level thinking and problem solving skills
• Provide advanced training in the arts
• Prepare students for a full-range of post-secondary options
• Incorporate experiential and innovative approaches to learning
• Use both public and private facilities
• Connect students to the larger community of Springfield and the world.
• Build this creative learning community in Springfield’s urban core

Download a copy of the A3 Credit Map

Students don’t specialize in any particular art focus till their junior or senior year. Instead, students are exposed to a variety of theatre, video, and visual arts and are encouraged to seek outside arts instruction in disciplines that we don’t focus on such as dance and music. The idea is to connect the arts to academics and then create opportunities for students to go deeper into the arts fields that most interest them as they near graduation. Each student spends at least 12 hours a week in arts class, often staying after school and coming in on Saturdays to rehearse for a performance. Students’ schedules also incorporate a full college preparatory course load, including humanities, mathematics, science, and a foreign language (starting on 06-07). Throughout the curriculum, a special emphasis is placed on developing writing skills.

In their senior year, students embark on a unique capstone experience: writing a grant proposal to fund an independent community outreach arts project, giving something back for the extraordinary educational opportunities they enjoy at the Academy of Arts & Academics.

In addition to working with instructors from A3, students will have the opportunity to work with a variety of professional artists-local, national, and international. Our theatre arts advisory group features Kirk Boyd from the Willamette Repertory Theatre , Craig Willis from the Lord Leebrick Theatre Company , Jack Watson from the UO Theatre Department, Tom McNally from the University of Northern Colorado Theatre Department , and Devon Allen from Portland State University Theatre Department .

More arts advisory partnerships are in the works.