School of the Arts (SOTA) at Central Gwinnett High School is accepting applications from students with a passion for the arts. Current Gwinnett County Public Schools 8th grade students may apply for the SOTA Conservatory Program (audition/portfolio required) and for the SOTA Fellows Program (no admissions criteria). Students who will be in grades 10-12 next school year may apply; however, the number of spots will be subject to availability and will vary by Conservatory. (Transportation for Central Gwinnett Cluster students is provided. Students from other clusters must be eligible for permissive transfer and provide their own transportation.) The deadline to apply for the Conservatory is November 26. Applicants will be notified of their audition date and time by December 8.

Information Meeting & Pre-audition Workshop:

• Thursday, November 2
• Time: 5:30 p.m.- 8 p.m.

SOTA Auditions:

• January 2 and 3
• Applicants will receive notice of acceptance mid-January 2024
• Acceptance is contingent upon grades being finalized in June 2024

SOTA offers a unique “arts-centric” learning experience for Gwinnett County high school students, boasting the most fine arts courses in the district. Areas of concentration include Art and Design, Dance, Music Technology and Audio Production, Theatre, and Voice. Centrally located in Lawrenceville, this “school within a school” is designed for students who want to take their art to the next level, working with industry professionals and partnering with semi-professional, professional, and postsecondary arts organizations and programs for opportunities that students will not find anywhere else.

The arts school combines required academic coursework with expanded fine arts classes and arts-related internships and work experiences at a pre-professional and professional level. SOTA offers an audition-required Conservatory Program as well as a Fellows Program with focused elective courses in the arts. Housed in a 31,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility, SOTA has a black box theatre for flexible staging and small-audience performances; visual arts classrooms and computer art lab; expanded band, orchestra, chorus, music technology, and recording studio facilities; dance studio space; unique and specialized private lesson and studio space, and expanded performance, rehearsal, and storage spaces. SOTA’s faculty is made up of creative industry professionals. Both full-time educators and adjunct fine arts experts lead seminars and other innovative instructional approaches to help build students’ performance, business, technology, and communication skills needed for industry success.