Visual Arts and Design Academy

Mark your calendar for July 20. That’s the date when the contractors will hand over the keys to the new building serving the Visual Arts and Design Academy (VADA) at Santa Barbara High School. 

“We’re on schedule and on budget for the substantial completion date,” said Andy Beall, President of Friends of VADA, the nonprofit created to support the VADA both financially and with in-kind volunteer help. 

VADA is a small learning community at SBHS of about 225 students in grades 9-12, a unique “school-within-a-school” program that integrates rigorous academic coursework with project-based, career-focused art and design instruction in a supportive and creative environment. VADA fills a major gap in modern education and enables students to achieve their highest potential and professional readiness by teaching them the most sought after 21st century job skills. These include complex problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, emotional intelligence, and cognitive flexibility – skills that are highly prized in today’s job market whether in the arts and design sphere or elsewhere. 

The $7.25 million project will make a massive difference as the new VADA facility doubles the existing space that was over half a century old. The place was purpose-built following consultation with a team of industry advisors including Adobe, Deckers, and Patagonia, and designed to mirror the standards of colleges, design firms and creative businesses by featuring modern infrastructure and flexibility to enhance opportunities and the learning experience. The state-of-the-art, 3,350-square-foot facility is an integrated Design Lab and Art Studio training environment that will fully prepare the program’s students to flourish in their future – one that physically mirrors its mission.

“The new building puts the students into a framework that promotes visual design arts,” Beall said. “It’s meant to show students that this is what they should strive for, that they can be a Creative in an environment that rewards them and treats them like valuable citizens… it’s a good-looking building that serves their needs. There are 20-foot-tall walls to embrace an exhibition space, and two major studios connected by a wide artery that can open to become a huge, interconnected space. It supports the philosophy of juxtaposition.” 

You’d think having the new facility done and ready to occupy on time would be cause for a major community celebration. But, as with the program itself, the attention is on the students and making sure their experience with VADA is everything it can be, Beall said. So sure, mark your calendars, but don’t make any plans to come by, because there’s still a lot of logistical work to get done in the next month. 

“We invited some of our long-term supporters and other VIPs to come tour the place over the last couple months behind the scenes before it officially opens,” he said. “But the focus is more on making sure it’s ready for when school opens again in August. So after the principal and the director of the program, Daniel Barnett, gets the keys, what unfolds from there is getting everything ready. That’s also when the furniture arrives, and all of that will get assembled so that students can occupy the building for classes on day one of the new school year.”

Teachers, staff, and volunteer parents of VADA students will also bring over materials from the existing classrooms to make sure all of the supplies needed for the beginning of school will be on hand. 

The first day of school will be the first day that kids will be able to walk inside the gleaming new building, Beall said. 

“We expect just crazy excitement to happen then. We’re planning a few surprises for the students, maybe treats or something. And we’ll probably invite anybody on campus to come and see the new building over the first few days.” 

After that it’s back to VADA’s mission focusing on academic achievement, creative and critical thinking, art and design education, and tangible workforce skills that also feature inclusivity as a foundational pillar. The program reflects the diversity in Santa Barbara, as nearly half of the VADA students are socio-economically disadvantaged and/or have special needs. 

The new building is part of a revitalization of the lower campus at SBHS, which is marking its 100th anniversary at its location this year. A former ad hoc dirt parking area has been landscaped and will feature a fenced picnic bench area, plus the garden center that creates a green friendly space. And there’s still Phase 2 of the capital campaign, which aims to raise another $3.5 million to renovate the existing 1950s classroom and to provide sustainable funding for the VADA’s ongoing operations. 

But VADA will pause in mid-September to have its official ribbon cutting/grand opening as part of the SBHS’s 100th anniversary celebration, Beall said. 

“That way the building will be a little bit lived in with the students having been there for a month, so it will feel like a working space rather than just a gleaming new building,” he said.