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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Did You Know the LV Has a High School For the Performing Arts?

The Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts (LVPA) is a small high school in downtown Bethlehem. It has slightly more than 400 students total, drawn from forty different school districts. Admission is based on a successful audition in dance, instrumental music, visual arts, vocal music, theatre or figure-skating.

Diane LaBelle has just been appointed to the newly created position of Executive Director, according to a news release from LVPA’s Board of Directors. She starts July 1, 2010.

LaBelle comes from GoggleWorks, an Arts Center in an old Reading lens factory. She was named Executive Director there in 2005, after successfully raising $15 million in a capital campaign to renovate the former safety goggle factory.

LaBelle also served a brief stint as LVPA’s principal in the school’s first year. Before that, she served as Director of the Banana Factory from 1998-2003. Her background includes extensive experience in leadership roles in arts and nonprofit organizations during the past 15 years.

“I am very excited about taking a leadership position at LVPA as the school takes its next steps toward infusing academics with the arts,” says LaBelle. “LVPA provides a wonderful opportunity for me to offer my experience and pursue my interests at a thrilling time in the school’s history. I am eager to redirect my energies to my home community [LaBelle resides in Bethlehem] now that I have achieved both a professional and personal goal of establishing a thriving, self-sustaining arts center.”

I'll be honest. Before today, I had no idea that the Lehigh Valley even had a performing arts high school. There's even a special school for bloggers. It's called the Juvenile Justice Center.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 20, 2010 at 10:04 AM

    dude, where have you been? You must be really out of touch.

    This is a great school. When I worked at cityspace (a school age center), many of the kids sought to go there. I know many kids from center city allentown that have taken advantage of this school and gone on to performing arts education in philly and even locally. These kids would have otherwise been completely ignored in their learning passions.

    Glad you could cover this.

    Geoff

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bernie O'HareApril 20, 2010 at 10:12 AM

    To my shame, I was completely unaware of this. I was only aware of the school for bloggers.

    ReplyDelete

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