The Missouri Fine Arts Academy provides a unique program of artistic, extracurricular, and social opportunities to Missouri's talented high school students, and has done so since 1996. Click here to learn more about MFAA...
"Thank you for providing me with such an amazing educational opportunity. I view the day I received my letter of acceptance to the Fine Arts Academy as the greatest day of my life. The first occurred at the end of March this year when I received my letter of acceptance into..." Click here to read more.
MFAA Home > About
About
Contacts | History | Funding | Testimonials | Policies and Procedures
EO/AA | Accessibility | Design and Programming
Contacts
MFAA Director
Julie
Bloodworth
Missouri Fine Arts Academy
901 South National Avenue
Springfield, MO 65897
417.836.6607
Fax 417.836.6940
Email JulieBloodworth@missouristate.edu
MFAA Coordinator
Leatha
Ault
Missouri Fine Arts Academy
901 South National Avenue
Springfield, MO 65897
417.836.3187
Fax 417.836.6940
Email LeathaAult@missouristate.edu
Director of Gifted Education Programs, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
David
Welch
Director of Gifted Education, DESE
P.O. Box 480
Jefferson City MO 65102
573.751.2453
573.751.9434
Email David.Welch@dese.mo.gov
History
The concept of the Missouri Fine Arts Academy grew out of an interest in providing an opportunity and level of support necessary to challenge, motivate, and empower Missouri's most talented arts students to become future state arts leaders. In 1994, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) requested that the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education convene and fund an Arts Academy Advisory Committee to visit and assess governor's schools for the arts in four different states. States visited include Arkansas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Following the onsite visits, a plan was developed that proposed a residential, state-affiliated academy designed to provide outstanding students in the arts an opportunity for in-depth study in a chosen arts discipline. During the 1995 legislative session, the arts academy concept was accepted and its funding approved.
During the summer of 1995, the DESE mailed requests for proposals to manage the academy to all colleges and universities in Missouri. Later, six sites were visited by a review team, and Southwest Missouri State University was selected as the location for the first fine arts academy, which was scheduled to take place in June and July, 1996. Dr. David Belcher, Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at the time, served as director of the Academy, and Amy Muchnick, professor of Music, served as site coordinator.
— courtesy "Artlogue" of a 1996 Missouri Arts Council newsletter
Funding
Missouri Fine Arts Academy funds are appropriated by the Missouri Legislature. The Academy is conducted by the Missouri State Board of Education and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in cooperation with Missouri State University. It is housed in the College of Arts and Letters.
MFAA is also grateful for support from the Gifted Association of Missouri.
The Missouri Fine Arts Academy welcomes your support, as well. Please click on "Donate" to find out how to contribute to The Missouri Fine Arts Academy Endowment Fund and the Lloyd I Williams Fine Arts Endowment Fund.
Testimonials
“The single best thing about the Academy was that everyone cared about the Academy and truly cared about the students.”
—2006 MFAA Student
“We’ll know if the Missouri Fine Arts Academy is successful if this generation of MFAA students use what they’ve learned to improve their community.”
—2006 MFAA Student
“I found out in April that I was accepted into New University’s Tisch School of the Arts (Stella Adler Conservatory) and will be attending with at least two other MFAAs. I know for a fact that MFAA is what made this achievement possible for me, and that it inspired the confidence in many of us to take our careers to the next level. Thank you. The tremendous task that the faculty and staff of the Academy take on each year benefits all the artists lucky enough to be accepted. Without the classes I took and the people I met at MFAA, I never would have thought seriously about theatre as a career.”
—2005 MFAA Student
[Three MFAA classmates] participated in the Polar Bear Plunge at the Lake of the Ozarks. We did our best to represent MFAA as we ran screaming into the water! MFAA was such an amazing experience for us that we wanted to give back to the community in some way. The three of us were able to raise around $600.00 for Special Olympics of Missouri.”
—2006 MFAA Students
“I look at the website every summer and feel nostalgic about my years there as a student, RA, and RA Director. . . . It was an amazing part of my life. I am graduating medical school in May. . . . With some time to reflect recently, I realize how important the arts still are to me and I know that they will significantly impact the way I practice medicine. I’ll always be an advocate for the arts. . . and I’ll likely be in Missouri for quite a while. You can always count on me for a letter to my senators/representatives!!”
—1997 MFAA Student, Resident Assistant, Resident Assistant Director
“2006 was a crazy year for me. I went on a national tour, did two Shakespeare plays, went to Bermuda, Vienna, and Prague. . . and will be going to Amsterdam in August to teach an acting workshop. . . . I still count MFAA as my biggest influence on my as an artist. I’m so glad that you are still giving that experience to kids. They will be so grateful . . . as I am.”
—1997 MFAA Student, Resident Assistant
“[My daughter went into MFAA] creative and enthusiastic and came out inspired, more open-minded and well rounded, and more mature. [She] loved every minute with MFAA and I am proud and thankful that she was lucky enough to have been a part of it.
—Parent of 2006 MFAA Student
“The type of educator I want to be is a life changer. Simple as that. I want to inspire and provoke incentive. I want to spark and invigorate. I want my students to be able to think critically. I want learning to happen in ways that my students have never experienced before. I want to be the type of teacher that MFAA has always, always instilled in me to be.”
—2002 MFAA Student, Resident Assistant
"My daughter, Morgan Dameron, attended the Missouri Fine Arts Academy last summer. I thought you should be aware of what I consider a truly remarkable connection that was made there.
Morgan met a student named Katie Coble from the Kansas City area. Morgan was so taken by a self-portrait that Katie brought to the Academy, she asked if she could make a movie about the painting. So after the Academy, Morgan made a movie for a local Independent Film contest. The contest, called "Every Picture Tells a Story," asks the filmmaker to take a piece of art and, through film, tell its story. Katie was in the film along with other local students. Morgan entered the film in the contest and won 2nd place....this is an adult venue where Morgan is the only student. I thought that was a remarkable connection.
This year I have returned to teaching at Oak Park High School in Kansas City, where Katie goes to school. The entire school (2035 students) viewed the film and were told about MFAA. Morgan's school, Pembroke Hill, will be featuring her film in their school’s Arts Festival in October. They will have a "cinema" where students and parents can view it.
Thanks for all you do for the kids. Their connections and experiences do make a difference!"
—Lori Dameron
"I am writing to express my appreciation for the Missouri Fine Arts Academy. As I anticipated, (my student) reported having “the greatest experience of my life.” She has had limited opportunities to develop her artistic talents. The Fine Arts Academy exposed her to new areas of art, inspired her to continue pursuing her artistic goals, and introduced her to faculty and peers who enriched her character. I am grateful to the faculty and staff of the Fine Arts Academy, DESE, and the General Assembly for providing this high quality program for the exceptionally talented students of Missouri. As one local school administrator, I can testify that the Fine Arts Academy is making a very significant contribution to the lives of Missouri students." —school administrator
"I’m glad to hear that you have received funding for next year’s MFAA. The continuation of your program ensures that there will be . . . more people armed with the knowledge that they are not like everyone else—that they are blessed with the gifts that they have, and that it is not only important, it’s imperative that they share them with others. In my short life of big moments, I consider MFAA to be the biggest. It was truly a turning point in my life, and it absolutely was one of the biggest forces in shaping the woman I am today. In addition to the emphasis on outreach, I also grew as a performing artist. I was encouraged to excel at the things I was good at, and to explore the things I was not. . . . I made life long friends during those three short weeks. The people I met were some of the most talented, loving, kind, giving, compassionate, intelligent and caring artists I have ever had the pleasure of meeting."
—Jessica Anderson, 1998 alum
"Thank you for providing me with such an amazing educational opportunity. I view the day I received my letter of acceptance to the Fine Arts Academy as the greatest day of my life. The first occurred at the end of March this year when I received my letter of acceptance into New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education for jazz performance. I know that without attending the Fine Arts Academy I would never have had the confidence in my abilities and talent to pursue music professionally."
—Hampton Williams, 2004 alum
"Here at the Academy, we’ve inspired each other and made unique connections with each other that we will never be able to describe to anyone . . . , but we will always have one thing that keeps us forever bonded: our responsibility as artists. We’ve all learned here that we are blessed with wonderful gifts and talents, and it is our responsibility to share them with the world. . . . Make the connection."
—Angelina Impellizzeri, 2005 alum
"Halfway through the second week, I got the phone call that every parent wants to hear. My usually reserved teenage boy was literally breathless from trying to tell me all the experiences he was having. It was less 'this is what we are doing' and more ‘this is what we are all feeling.' At one point he said, 'I love every second of every minute of every hour of every day here.' It dawned on me that homesickness was not going to be our demon, but leaving the Academy would be."
—Sandra Brown, parent of a 2005 student
"I dream about the Academy sometimes, both from being on staff and a student. I can’t decide where I learned more. I think the Academy, with the interdisciplinary events especially, really plants a seed in good artists."
— Ian Merrigan, 1999 alum; 2003 RA
Policies and Procedures
MFAA Policies and Procedures Manual (.pdf; 80K)
Accessibility
Missouri Fine Arts Academy strives to develop all web pages to Level-Triple
A Conformance of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C®) Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines. In the few instances where Level-Triple A guidelines are not
completely met, Level-Double A Conformance is noted.
Note: Accesskey (denoted in menus with underlined letters)
and tabindex attributes are included in navigational link tags. Use accesskey value "s" to skip main navigation and move to page content.
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Design and Programming
Web design and programming provided by Angela Barker,
Instructional Technology Support Specialist for the College
of Arts & Letters at
Missouri State University.
All web pages validate to the XHTML 1.0
Strict markup standards recommended
by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C®).
All stylesheets validate to W3C®'s CSS conformance
recommendations.
