EDUCATION
Cultivating Top Talent
Students demonstrate arts education in action at the ASFA 2019 Open House
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U P D A T E S F R O M
T H E A L A B A M A S C H O O L O F F I N E A R T S
and reward, art and science, school and society.
writing, dance, math-science, music, theatre
arts, and visual arts. Included in the curriculum
are comprehensive core academic classes that
complement the pre-professional arts education.
With a faculty that includes many working
artists, the school provides students a well-
recently installed a sculpture at the Birmingham
Museum of Art; creative writing faculty Kwoya
Fagin-Maples and Ashley M. Jones (also an alum)
music chair and current Director of Student
Support Services Kim Strickland (Scott) reached
PHOTO BY BEAU GUSTAFSON FOR ASFA
THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
and senior high school located in the heart
the legislature in 1971 to provide tuition-free
instruction for talented and gifted students from
1950s and 1960s when various Birmingham
parents and arts advocates appealed to state leaders
in the arts. Then Governor Lurleen Wallace
responded with an August 24, 1967, proclamation
(AHSFA) pilot program and a discretionary startup
grant of $10,000. On August 31, 1971, the
school added a math-science specialty department
in the 1990s.
ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS
has distinct application requirements. The