The Fine Arts Academy (FAA) at McCallum provides a program for students across Austin to pursue an accelerated arts curriculum as fine arts majors. FAA attracts a diverse student body from across the metroplex. The Academy community includes students from all AISD middle schools and many private and parochial schools. The idea for a Fine Arts high school for Austin was inspired by Ruth Denney, who founded Houston's High School for Performing and Visual Arts after retiring as a professor at UT Austin. Partly as a result of Denney's involvement, McCallum Fine Arts Academy was embraced by UT College of Fine Arts (COFA) from its inception and a strong partnership with COFA continues today.

By creating a high school with a fine arts focus for Austin, the Academy has created mutually supportive partnerships with arts organizations and artists across the region.

It was in consultation with UT College of Fine Arts (COFA) that curriculum design of rigorous arts coursework was initially developed, incuding one of the few non drill-team based high school dance programs in the state. Here, advanced dancers study both ballet and modern dance, inviting guest choreographers to set pieces included in productions. As upperclassmen, all music majors study Piano followed by Advanced Placement Music Theory and Art majors enroll in A.P. Studio art classes as well as Advanced Placement Art History. Upper level dance majors are gaining experience choreographing and staging productions. Senior theatre majors often direct and stage productions and at the Academy, may choose to major in technical theatre. The first classical guitar studies program was established at FAA, and has since expanded with significant curriculum and coaching support of Austin Classical Guitar Society. Many other instrumentalists from wind ensemble, orchestra, and piano receive weekly professional coaching provided by the Austin Chamber Music Center. Vocal and instrumental music ensembles have each performed on the Carnegie Hall stage and there is an annual master class for chamber orchestra led by two Italian maestros and sponsored by the local chapter of the Neapolitan Music Society.

The exceptional work of FAA music faculty and students received national recognition: GRAMMY Signature School 2005 for Excellence in Music Education and Recording Arts. National recognition has also come from orchestra, choir, and band performances in Carnegie Hall. In Summer 2007, theatre students performed and participated in educational events at the Fringe Festival at Edinburg, Scotland and a summer collaborative in Costa Rica staffed by UT professors is being created for our high school musical theatre students. Three of 27 Texas Young Masters (two art majors and one classical guitarist) chosen state-wide by Texas Commission on the Arts were from McCallum and received renewable grants for summer art studies in-state, nationally, and abroad. Academy graduates in all strands are attending colleges and universities acrosss the US, and many are receiving significant scholarships.

The success of FAA is now well-known due to work of dedicated faculty and the recognitions earned by Academy students in every strand. MFAA's future is evolving as we expand our faculty, curriculum and fine arts facilities. Most recently, we have added two masters level teachers, one in classical guitar and one in dance. The recent addition of a technical theatre major to train students in "behind the scenes" theatrical world of lighting design, set-design, and robotics has added depth to the theatre arts curriculum, and adding a major in musical theatre is on the horizon.

The future is bright for MFAA!

Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Julliard, Eastman School of Music, Oberlin, Princeton, Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute of NY, Rhode Island School of Design, Tulane, Art Institute of Chicago, New York University, Swarthmore, University of Colorado, Penn State, UCLA, Savannah College of Arts and Design, Washington University, University of Southern California, Berklee School of Music and Emerson College in Boston, Bishops University in Canada, The Conservatory of Art in Florence, Italy, University of Texas, Rice University and other fine schools across Texas.