Arts high school in Fort Smith awarded $1.25 million grant

The Institute for the Creative Arts in Fort Smith announced Thursday (Feb. 8) it has received a $1.25 million Charter Schools Program Subgrant (CSP) from the Arkansas Public School Resource Center.

The subgrant is awarded for the purpose of assisting new charter schools in start-up costs. It is awarded in three phases with $100,000 for planning that includes recruitment of students and personnel, $525,000 for start-up costs such as equipment, curriculum, and other materials, and an additional supplemental amount for $625,000 in start-up funding once the school opens, a news release said.

“This is a tremendous award for ICA as we prepare to begin a high school of this type. It is a huge undertaking to open an arts school, and like athletics, funding the arts is very expensive,” said Dr. Rosilee Russell, founder and executive director of Community School of the Arts. “These funds will provide so much of the needed equipment to be able to offer the specialized and cutting-edge arts programs that ICA intends to offer.”

The Arkansas Department of Education State Board of Education gave final approval for the Institute for the Creative Arts at its meeting Dec. 15, officially starting the state’s first performing and visual arts high school. With that final approval, the high school is now preparing to open in August in Fort Smith.

The school will be housed in the Community School of the Arts’ (CSA) new 40,000-square-foot Center for Creative Art building under construction just north of the U.S. Marshals Museum along the Arkansas River.

The subgrant funds will allow students to experience the arts in a way that will “fully prepare them for the industry,” Russell said.

School administration anticipates the grant will fund state-of-the-art equipment for animation and gaming, digital film equipment, pianos and other instruments, recording equipment for the high-tech recording studio, smart boards and LED screens, tools for theater tech, sewing machines and other equipment for costuming, and cutting-edge sound and lighting equipment for performances, the news release said.

In addition, the grant will allow the school to hire “top-level personnel,” according to the news release.

The tuition-free school is open to all Arkansas students. It will open with arts programs in contemporary music including jazz and pop styles, music composition and technology, musical theater, dance, creative and theatrical writing, and studies in visual art including digital art, animation, and gaming. Students will have the opportunity to select their choice of arts study.
Enrollment is now open and taken on a first-come, first-served basis.