01/19/10: The California State Summer School for the Arts (InnerSpark) is seeking the most talented high school-aged visual, literary, media and performing artists in California. The teenagers who are selected will be designated California Arts Scholars, and will attend one of the country's premier summer arts institutes on the campus of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia from July 10 through August 6, 2010.
Posters describing the school's programs and application process are now being distributed at local high schools, libraries and arts councils. Application forms and instructions are also available on the web at www.innerspark.us. The application deadline is February 27, 2010.
For the 520 students accepted, InnerSpark represents a unique opportunity to spend four weeks studying and working with professional artists, writers and performers of national stature. The program provides an educational link to institutions of higher learning, major performing and fine arts organizations, and the film, television and recording industries for students considering careers in the arts. The talented teenagers who successfully complete the program will receive three units of California State University course credit.
InnerSpark offers instruction in the fields of animation, music, dance, film and video, theatre, creative writing and the visual arts. The California Legislature created the California State Summer School for the Arts to establish a training environment for the state's young artists. The school has conducted summer sessions in each consecutive year beginning in 1987. More than 10,000 young Californians have attended since the program's inception. For many of them, it was the first step to important and successful careers in the arts and related industries.
Alumni of the program include Actor James Franco who has been featured in the Spiderman movies, and the films Annapolis, Flyboys, City by the Sea and many others; Craig McCracken, the Emmy Award-winning animator who created The Powerpuff Girls; Creative Writer Daklia Davina, the Managing Editor of Parade Magazine; Dancer Sharon Grimsley Teague, Principal Soloist for the Houston Ballet; 2006 Ecco Domani Award winning fashion designer Sophie Buhai, the cofounder of Vena Cava, and 2006 American Idol finalist Katharine McPhee, to name just a few.
For more information about InnerSpark, including applications, please visit www.innerspark.us.
Contact: Rebecca Cacciari, Museum Programs Manager
Phone: (707) 442-0278 ext. 201
Email: rebecca [at] humboldtarts.org
