The Arts is an essential part of NPA. From traveling to Ashland, OR to see plays, to participating in the San Francisco Opera Guild, to pursuing the NPA Artist’s Diploma, the arts are fostered as an integral part of everyday life, permeating all levels of human creativity, expression, communication and understanding.
Trip to Ashland to see plays
At the beginning of each year, all NPA students travel to Ashland to spend two nights together. During the trip students attend three plays, participate in seminar discussions of topics drawn from the plays, and write reflective journals about their experiences. Learn more.
San Francisco Opera Guild | Opera Trip
Now more than ever, it is important to unite our community through artistic engagement and expression. San Francisco Opera Guild gives voice to potential through education and joint performances with NPA students that bring opera center stage into their lives.
Music
NPA offers both jazz band and orchestra starting at the middle school level. NPA’s high school jazz band participates annually in the Redwood Coast Jazz Festival as well as a variety of other local events. NPA jazz and orchestra musicians participate in the All County Music Festival. NPA regularly has participants in the CMEA All State Festivals. NPA orchestra members have also been frequent winners of the Eureka Symphony Concerto Competition.
NPA also offers a flute choir, vocal ensemble, and other acoustic and electric group/band options as elective courses.
All students participate in NPA’s all-school choir, which rehearses once each week on Friday afternoons.
Theatre: NPA Young Actors Guild
All NPA students participate in one major production (freshman-sophomore or junior-senior) each year. NPA also has a travelling Young Actors Guild, which performs regularly for host schools and at other events during NPA’s international trips. Young Actors Guild members also participate in international theatre festivals and have received critical acclaim for their productions.
Visual Arts
NPA has a dedicated visual arts studio that supports work in multiple media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed media, and ceramics. Students can also pursue digital art in the school’s computer lab.
Dance
NPA supports in their individual development as dancers. NPA students have the opportunity to perform in the school’s annual productions, at school events, and in Artist Diploma recitals.
The NPA Artist’s Diploma Courses
The Artist’s Diploma program at NPA is a supervised study program intended to support serious visual, literary, and performing arts students in their individual development as artists. Learn more.