I Miss CSSSA! It truly is a place where you can just express your self through ART & so many ways & be surrounded by many people who live life with out negativity!
Attending the California State Summer School for the Arts was the best experience of my educational career and one of the best months of my life! The teachers are amazing and the program made me feel like an artist for the first time. I took my first Photography class at CSSSA and went on to become a Photography teacher. After being an Art teacher for the last 10 years I am most proud of the fact that I have helped many of my students apply to and enjoy their own amazing summers at CSSSA! This program offers students a once in a lifetime chance to try a variety of art forms in a supportive environment with amazing teachers. I appreciate the amount of financial aid that the program gives to student to help make sure that all who get in can afford to go! Attending the California State Summer School for the Arts was the true beginning to my career as an artist. Thank you for continuing to be such a powerful organization for my students!
The month I spent at CSSSA was the best experience of my life. I learned so much about writing but also I grew as a person. The atmosphere there was incredible and so, so free! It was artistic and expressive and everyone seemed really invested in the program they were in. It was a great experience and I'm immensely glad that I did it!
THE BEST ARTS EXPERIENCE EVER!! I am a music major, my focus is jazz performance. I thought I would come to CSSSA just to play Jazz for a month, but I did so much more. I studied World Music such as West African drumming, and Gamelan from Bali, I took music theory courses, along with playing Jazz and Funk music in the many ensembles at CSSSA. CSSSA expanded my view of music, it helped me take music out of a box and analyze it ways I would’ve never thought of. Most importantly I met many lifelong friends, and connections. I know that all my peers at CSSSA will someday become masters of their craft. I wouldn’t replace my summer at CSSSA for anything in the world, I highly recommend CSSSA for anyone who is serious about art.
California State Summer School for the Arts truly changed my life. Having grown up in a homogeneous upper-middle class suburb I never knew the artist community existed on that level. I completely opened up my eyes to the community that I now know I NEED to be a part of in my future. Thank you CSSSA for directing me at a time when I needed it most, and giving me inspiration and faith that I can be exactly who I want to be.
In 2001 CSSSA began its positive effect on my life and goals. Many of my closest friends were people from an array of artistic disciplines met during their program. Now, a decade later, these are the people I call upon for artistic advice.
The opportunities for collaboration and exploration are tremendous. Their facilities and instructors are at a professional level, and provide students diverse learning opportunities from experts within their fields. It is indeed an ideal situation for any budding artist.
The campus library is filled with a slew of resources ranging from art theory to archived records, to rare artists monographs.
It may be a delightful surprise to know that the food served is not just edible, but quality and good.
Having attended their program for two years I have only good things to say, this place is a Utopia for the artistic High School student. If you are looking for a place that changes your artistic life, this is it.
My experience at CSSSA’s film program last summer was truly life-changing one. During the 4 weeks of this immersive residential program, my classmates and I breathed, ate, and lived film. We would spend 15 or more hours per day, studying, discovering, and creating films. The program was extremely rigorous and all-encompassing. Living through this experience together bonded my classmates and me in the most profound way. We became partners-in-crime, comrades, ignited about learning film and engaging in the artistic process. Our experience was immensely enriched by a unique opportunity to observe, learn and work side by side with the visiting artists – Marnie Weber, James Laxton and Doug Harvey. They provided valuable dimension to our quest to master film craft, becoming our mentors and enthusiastic supporters. On behalf of my classmates and myself, I would like to express my deep gratitude to CSSSA for this inspirational and fulfilling program.
California State Summer School for the Arts was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It helped me discover myself as an artist and become more conscious in my writing choices. I also made many (hopefully) lifelong friends, whom I love dearly and am so glad to have met. CSSSA is truly a fantastic nonprofit--
CSSSA is celebrating its 25th year of opening doors for artistically talented young people all around the state. In addition to staying true to its mission to serve as a model for private/public partnership, CSSSA has built a well-deserved reputation for the unmatched caliber of its intensive arts education program. CSSSA alumni have become trailblazers, taste makers and visionaries in the arts, not just in California but across the country. The organization has a powerhouse Board of Directors, Board of Trustees and Advisory Board, all of which include CSSSA alumni and arts and entertainment industry leaders, philanthropists, arts education practitioners and policy makers. CSSSA changes lives by offering once-in-a-lifetime opportunities when young people need it most.
I guess I am what you would call A Client Served. Both my children went to CSSSA nine years apart and both had exquisite experiences. They both became artists --my daughter Gina Maggiore Brownstein became a visual artist and my son Maximilian Maggiore Brownstein went into theater as a stage lighting and sound expert on Broadway. I think CSSSA had a very strong say in encouraging and guiding all of these young people to make the brave choice to make art the centerpiece of their lives.
I remember helping Gina at 16, nervous and unsure of her genius, to make her application. She had a body of work but it wasn't until the application process that I saw her look and herself and all she had been doing as an endeavor that would claim her the rest of her life. She wrote little while she was at CSSSA that summer but she called once or twice and was ecstatic. "The teachers are so great! The kids are so great! There's a guy walking around here in a dress!" My husband and I were going through a divorce that summer and Gina received the CSSSA experience as a healing as well as a launching pad for her new, her very own life. Eventually, Gina became a photography teacher and the head of her department in an inner city LA high school. She helped about a dozen of her students get into CSSSA. Many of them went on to accept both the healing and the inspiration that the artists at CSSSA gave them that critical summer.
