Alabama School of Fine Arts Accepting Applications For 2022-23

BIRMINGHAM, AL —The Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA) has announced it has opened applications for the 2022-23 school year for students currently in 6th grade through 10th grade. The Birmingham school has students in grades 7th through 12th.

Applications are available online for the tuition-free school, from which students earn an advanced Alabama High School diploma.

ASFA students take morning academic classes and then have three hours of specialized instruction in the afternoon. The school, which features housing for students outside the Birmingham area, offers six specialty programs: creative writing, dance, mathematics and science, music, theatre, and visual arts.

"ASFA is a hub for talented people of diverse backgrounds to come together to create, to practice, to perform, to invent, and to push themselves further than they ever imagined they could go on their own," ASFA said in a statement.

According to the ASFA, 2021 graduates of the school earned approximately $11.9 million in scholarships and awards, and 97 percent of seniors earned merit scholarships, compared to a national average of 15 percent.

The school also offers a full-time college counselor, who is devoted to helping students and families evaluate the colleges and universities that suit them best.

Created in 1971, ASFA was designed by the legislature to provide tuition-free instruction for talented and gifted students from throughout the state. The school, which has 375 students, attracts a diverse student body that reflects Alabama's demographic makeup, ASFA said.

"The school recruits and retains students based on preparation, motivation and focus within a chosen specialty," ASFA said.

According to the ASFA, the school building, located at 1800 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr. Blvd., features studios, classrooms, labs, practice rooms, performance spaces, a library, a cafeteria and dormitory space for up to 80 individuals.

The school's faculty includes Wes Chapman, who was the principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Ashley M. Jones, Alabama's Poet Laureate, and Alex Fokkens, the artistic director and CEO of the Free State Symphony.

Notable graduates of the school are: Suzanne Collins, the author of "The Hunger Games," Laverne Cox, an Emmy-nominated actress and advocate and Ajiona Alexus, an actress who has starred in "Black Mafia Family," "Empire" and "13 Reasons Why."