Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School

Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts 6–12 (CAPA) is a magnet school located in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. CAPA is one of four 6th to 12th grade schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. It was formed from a merger between CAPA High School and Rogers CAPA Middle School. CAPA offers students seven art majors: visual arts, literary arts, theater, production technology, instrumental music, vocal music, and dance. The theater major includes traditional theater and musical theater. The Instrumental department is composed of Instrumental and Piano Majors. Arts classes are taught by adjunct faculty who are working professionals in their fields. Admission is by portfolio or audition. The school offers academic studies including Pittsburgh Scholars Program (PSP) and Centers for Advanced Study (CAS), along with activities like the National Honor Society, Tri-M Music Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, yearbook, newspaper, student council, Amnesty International, Model United Nations, the American Mathematics Competitions and North American Computational Linguistics Open competition, and ski club. 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.