Alabama School of Fine Arts

The six specialties of the school are music, visual arts, theatre arts, creative writing, math and science, and dance. The largest of these is math and science with an enrollment of around 100 students, with the other departments being smaller portions of the student body.

The school began in 1968 with a group of Birmingham arts community leaders, James Hatcher and Peggy Beddow Cook, who acquired funding from Governor Lurleen Wallace to support instructional programs based in community arts agencies after school. The Alabama Legislature formally created the school with a resolution in 1971. The school was located at Samford University, with the dance program being located at UAB, but moved to Birmingham–Southern College in 1974. While there it was consolidated into five arts programs and a core academic program, staffed in part by the Birmingham City Schools.

The school moved to its own temporary downtown Birmingham campus in 1976. At this time the private, non-profit Alabama School of Fine Arts Foundation was established to raise funding to build an all-new campus complex.{{cite web |url=http://www.asfa.k12.al.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=200888&type=d |title=History |publisher=Alabama School of Fine Arts |accessdate=December 6, 2013 |archive-date=February 26, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226173702/http://www.asfa.k12.al.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=200888&type=d |url-status=dead }}

A new law was approved by the Legislature in 1992 to provide for authorization for the school.{{cite web|title=Functional and Organizational Analysis of the Alabama School of the Fine Arts|url=http://www.archives.alabama.gov/officials/rdas/SchoolFineArts2012.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120913024900/http://www.archives.alabama.gov/officials/rdas/SchoolFineArts2012.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 13, 2012|work=Alabama School of Fine Arts Functional Analysis and Records Deposition Authority|accessdate=December 6, 2013}} The school moved into its new $10 million facility in the heart of Birmingham's cultural district the following year. A theater was added to the campus in 1995, followed by a mathematics and science wing in 1996. A creative writing wing was added in 1999. The ASFA Foundation began a new capital campaign in 2006 to raise money for the construction of a new theatre complex. The fundraising took many years, with construction lasting 17 months and costing $8.5 million. The new 500-seat theater, named in honor of Dorothy Jemison Day, was opened on March 30, 2012, with an ASFA theatre department production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town.{{cite news |title=Alabama School of Fine Arts readies to raise curtain on new theater |author=Michael Huebner |url=http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/03/curtain_rises_on_alabama_schoo.html |newspaper=The Birmingham News |date=March 29, 2012 |accessdate=March 29, 2012}}

The ASFA theatre department was named as one of the nation's outstanding high school theatre programs by Stage Directions magazine in 2011.{{cite web |url=http://www.stage-directions.com/current-issue/28-feature/3712-diversity-in-excellence.html |title=Diversity in Excellence |date=November 2011 |work=Stage Directions |publisher=Timeless Communications |accessdate=March 29, 2012}}

According to Newsweek, it was #4 on its list of [https://www.newsweek.com/top-high-schools-137349 The Top High Schools] in 2003.

Admission into the school is competitive. Prospective students must submit an application with test scores, transcripts, essays, and three letters of recommendation. Selected students then audition for their chosen department. For the arts departments, audition is through performance, portfolios, and interview. For the math and science department, audition is through interview and two rounds of testing.

With the school funded by the Alabama Legislature, in-state students pay no tuition. Students from outside the state are charged tuition.

It includes dormitory facilities for students aged 11–18.{{cite web|url=https://www.asfa.k12.al.us/Page/538|title=ASFA Dorm Handbook|publisher=Alabama School of Fine Arts|accessdate=July 21, 2022}}

• Ajiona Alexus, actress
• Ryan Swain, actor; most recently, Pose
• Suzanne Collins, writer; author of The Hunger Games{{cite news |title=Did you know 'Hunger Games' author Suzanne Collins has an Alabama connection? |author=Alec Harvey |url=http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/03/hunger_games_suzanne_collins_a.html |newspaper=The Birmingham News |date=March 23, 2012 |accessdate=March 29, 2012}}
• Laverne Cox, actress and transgender activist{{Cite web|url=http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=8516&pagenumber=1|title = Features Archives}}
• Orenda Fink, musician{{cite news |title=O+S return to the recording studio--and to Birmingham |author=Carla Jean Whitley |url=http://blog.al.com/birmingham-box-set/2011/11/os_return_to_the_recording_stu.html |newspaper=Birmingham Magazine |date=November 28, 2011 |accessdate=March 29, 2012}}
• Jennifer Hale, voice actress{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/15/110815fa_fact_bissell |title=Voicebox 360 |first=Tom |last=Bissell | authorlink=Tom Bissell | date= August 15, 2011 |magazine=The New Yorker |publisher=Condé Nast |accessdate=March 29, 2012}}{{cite journal | url=http://www.asfa.k12.al.us/pdf/Applause/April%202015.pdf | title=Alumni News: Jennifer Hale – Theater Arts – 1982 | journal=Applause – Alabama School of Fine Arts | publication-date=April 2015 | page=7 | access-date=January 31, 2016 | archive-date=July 20, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720150343/http://www.asfa.k12.al.us/pdf/Applause/April%202015.pdf | url-status=dead }}
• Brent Hinds, guitarist{{cite web |url=http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2009/May/Interview_Mastodons_Brent_Hinds_Bill_Kelliher.aspx?Page=3 |title=Interview: Mastodon's Brent Hinds & Bill Kelliher |author=Chris Kies |date=May 2009 |work=Premier Guitar |publisher=Gearhead Communications |accessdate=March 29, 2012 |archive-date=October 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002184325/http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2009/May/Interview_Mastodons_Brent_Hinds_Bill_Kelliher.aspx?Page=3 |url-status=dead }}
• Robert Hoffman, actor{{Cite web | url=https://themadisonrecord.com/tag/robert-hoffman/ | title=Robert Hoffman }}
• Maria Taylor, singer
• Mitski Miyawaki, singer

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• [https://www.asfa.k12.al.us/ Alabama School of Fine Arts]

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Category:Public high schools in Alabama

Category:Boarding schools in Alabama

Category:Educational institutions established in 1971

Category:Coalition of Essential Schools

Category:Public middle schools in Alabama

Category:Schools in Jefferson County, Alabama

Category:Schools of the performing arts in the United States

Category:1971 establishments in Alabama

Category:Public boarding schools in the United States