Idyllwild Arts Academy

What do a vascular surgeon with offices in four cities (Idyllwild Arts Academy Class of ‘89), an award-winning environmental scientist-activist (Class of ‘92), a prolific inventor (Class of ‘94), and a Silicon Valley high-tech executive (Class of ‘03) have in common?

Like many successful professional artists, they graduated from Idyllwild Arts Academy, the unique residential high school that sits on 205 forested acres in Southern California’s breathtaking San Jacinto Mountains. Students from around the world are attracted to Idyllwild Arts Academy not only by its natural beauty, but by the school's dedication to study of music, visual arts, theatre, dance, filmmaking, fashion design, creative writing, and interdisciplinary arts. The residential high school sits on 205 forested acres in Southern California.

The Academy is one of only three residential arts high schools in the United States, and the only such school west of the Mississippi. Its distinctively successful union of arts and academics has earned the Art School Network’s coveted Exemplary School Designation.

Additionally, the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program annually teaches every arts form to two thousand people of all skill levels and ages. These include many teenagers who, entranced by the Summer Program, decide they must return for the Academy year.