There are more girls than boys, more minorities than whites. At the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts next door, students audition or submit portfolios for admission. Until September, the arts academy was housed for about 12 years in a former funeral home and bar on Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford. Kim Stroud, the school's managing director, said student dancers were reluctant to leap with abandon since the ceilings were so low. The new performance spaces are very different, with many windows and soaring ceilings.
Musicians work in modern recording studios.
Writers listen to visiting poets while perched on upholstered furniture in a room that overlooks the green. More important, school administrators said, the majority of the teachers are themselves performing artists. These 260 students leave their home schools in 43 different school districts to attend either morning or afternoon classes at the arts academy. About 21 percent of the students are from Hartford. Students must audition and apply to be considered for the program.