About Us
Mission
The mission of the School for the Visual Arts and Humanities is to support students in reaching their personal, creative, and academic potential through a rigorous and relevant college-preparatory education with a focus on the Arts. Students will leave our school inspired and equipped to contribute positively to our community and world.
Vision
Art is a means of communication that can transcend language, borders, and time. At the School for the Visual Arts and Humanities, art serves as a vehicle for both student expression and social transformation. When paired with an understanding of history and human behavior, students not only investigate who they are, but also how they can transform their lives and effect positive social change.
The School for the Visual Arts and Humanities (SVAH) is a small, reform-oriented, public school for students in grades 9-12. Opened within LAUSD and WASC-accredited as a new Pilot School in 2008, SVAH is located in the heart of Koreatown, a sub-community of Los Angeles, on the site of the former Ambassador Hotel. The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex hosts six reform-oriented LAUSD pilot schools. SVAH was born out of a desire to create an educational experience for students that would be focused on personalization, a rigorous college preparatory curriculum centered on the visual arts, and an interdisciplinary approach to learning.
SVAH is a pilot school that provides a college preparatory curriculum with an interdisciplinary study of the humanities and offers two pathways in the fine arts and digital media arts. SVAH students take classes that connect to each other thematically, and they develop college and career readiness skills through project-based learning and presentations to community panels. SVAH intends for our students to reach their creative and academic potential through a rigorous college preparatory education anchored in the arts. SVAH’s instructional program follows the Linked Learning framework, an education approach that integrates career-based learning into a rigorous college preparatory instructional program. SVAH has received professional development that addresses pathway development, project-based learning, equitable grading and instruction, and Pathway Outcome implementation. SVAH was certified as a Linked Learning School in 2015 and has used Linked Learning as a vehicle for the systemic inclusion of career-based learning as well as the clear articulation of our Pathway Outcomes.