CSArts was built on a foundation of creativity where art meets scholastics. From academics to conservatory, CSArts uses a different approach to learning. Students throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties brave long commutes because of the many opportunities CSArts offers. The CSArts conservatory doesn’t just attract students, it attracts instructors interested in sharing their knowledge and talents
Before coming to CSArts to work as a creative writing instructor, Pasha McKenley worked at two other schools. She taught young children plays and monologues. Her students performed onstage, and those performances ignited a passion in other students throughout the school! From plays to monologues, students took advantage of this new opportunity to share their voices through acting and performing. Students even got the change to perform their own works in slam poetry.
Usually, I was the person bringing creativity to the schools,”
McKenly said.
This not only increased passion in students for the arts, it also helped improve communication among students and their peers, and improved the culture of the school.
Hearing about CSArts, McKenley thought the opportunity to work in a school that focused on the arts would be a good fit. After her first visit, she knew she was meant to teach at CSArts.
There was some guy playing the violin and there were girls tap dancing over there… I was like, where am I? Like on this island of bliss?”
While most schools offer artistic opportunites, not all encourage students to follow creative paths. Creative Writing Conservatory Director Timothy Gomez taught at many different schools, each with different ways of incorporating creativity. Gomez said that one middle school where he taught had a decent theater and visual arts program, but that it was limited.
They ended up de-prioritizing their creative skills and finding more traditional pathways, while only exploring their art as a hobby. Or some of our most talented artists ending up leaving our school and going elsewhere to a school that could prioritize their creativity and had the resources for it.”
CSArts prioritized creativity for students and teachers, which led Gomez here last Summer.
I see a real social comfort here that I didn’t see at my other schools. Students feel fully safe to be themselves and explore who they are, and I think this is a product of allowing them to explore their creative lives more fully. I wanted to engage more with my creative life. At CSArts, I get to have the freedom to explore the exact kind of material that I’d like to with my students. And I get to value their creative work in the exact ways that I think matters.”
CSArts continues to attract students and teachers alike because it offers a blank canvas and the tools for success in both academics and conservatory. This balance of art and scholastics continues to produce students who are prepared for their next chapter after graduation.
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