CAPA opened in September 1979 with 35 students, housed in Baxter Elementary School in the Homewood neighborhood. While in Homewood, CAPA only housed grades 9-12, while arts students in grades 6-8 were at Rogers Middle School. The school moved into its current space at Ninth Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard at the beginning of the 2003–2004 school year.
The 11-story, 175,000-square-foot (16,300 m2) includes a 400-seat auditorium, a black box theater, a cabaret theater, an art gallery, media arts center, television studio, fitness center, computer labs, and rehearsal spaces for the departments. This location allows students to study their craft in the hub of Pittsburgh's cultural center and to collaborate with artists from all over. Pittsburgh CAPA has become one of four 6–12 schools in Downtown Pittsburgh.
The literary arts program at CAPA is a seven-year course of study in creative writing — one of only a dozen nationwide. Student activities include the national Poetry Out Loud competition, and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.[2]
Visual arts
Students in the Visual Arts Department learn painting, drawing, sculpting, ceramics, printmaking, digital media, art history, and fiber arts. Student work is displayed around the school as well as on the Astrovision (Jumbo-Tron).[3] The Astrovision display has since broken, and has not been repaired.
The mission of the Dance Department is to provide a comprehensive and quality dance education in an environment that nurtures the talent of each individual dancer. Emphasis is placed on refining and enhancing dance technique while simulating creativity.
Theatre
Drama/Musical Theatre. The theatre department provides a four-year structured course in musical theatre and drama. Every year the musical theatre students perform two recitals and the All School Musical.
Instrumental music
Classes available to instrumental music majors include orchestra, wind ensemble, string orchestra, chamber music ensembles, various jazz bands, music/jazz theory, music history, piano lab, and solfege. Each student normally receives a private lesson once every two weeks with a faculty member specializing on his/her instrument.
Piano
Piano students learn techniques, piano history, new genres of music, play in ensembles, have private piano lessons, and are classically trained. They have a piano recital every year along with other performances in collaboration with the Instrumental department.
Production Technology
The Pro-Tech major gives students the opportunity to learn engineering techniques and the fundamentals of building sets for theatre shows. They act as crew for recitals, performances, and musicals.
Vocal music
The Voice Department offers students education through its sequential four-year curriculum, through collaborative work with professional music organizations, and through performance opportunities and Master Classes. Students in grades 9–12 receive a private voice lesson every other week. Students will perform in Concert Choir, Jazz Choir, and Chamber Ensemble. Students participate in the Opera Workshop class and perform in the yearly Opera. Other classes include: music theory, piano lab, music history, solfeggio, eurhythmics, Studio Class, and the creative music technology class. Each Friday, students perform in a recital for their peers studying vocal music. They showcase songs that they work on in private lessons with the staff.
Athletics
In addition to the Ultimate Frisbee team, CAPA students may play on the University Prep football team and the Obama Academy teams in other sports.
The 6–8 students do have sports teams. They have a boys and girls soccer, basketball, girls softball and boys baseball. The girls soccer team was an undefeated section champion in 2004. The CAPA 6–8 sports teams mascot is the unicorn changed from the phoenix in 2012, changed from the unicorn in 2011.
Notable alumni
Billy Porter (Tony Award winner for his role as Lola in the Broadway show Kinky Boots) (Emmy award winner for his role as Pray Tell in the television show Pose)
