Students audition for acceptance and choose a major. Majors available include performing arts (theatre, technical theatre, musical theatre, ballet, modern dance, tap, jazz, orchestra, choir, and band) and visual arts (painting, drawing, studio, printmaking, film, photography, fibers, sculpting, ceramics, and other classes which depend on availability and student participation). Northwest also prioritizes academic excellence, offering 12 AP and external college courses. Students are active in organizations such as Student Leadership, Diversity Club, Yearbook, Literary Magazine, and various honors societies.
Many arts faculty are active industry professionals, such as 2015 Tony-award winner Corey Mitchell,[3] master artist Bryan M. Wilson,[4] and professional dancer Amelia Binford.[5]
History
Northwest School of the Arts is named after "Northwest Junior High," which was renamed from West Charlotte High School in 1954. It is one of Charlotte’s first and only all-black junior high schools.[6] The school currently occupies the original historical West Charlotte High School campus, with the original 1938 building's facade and interior intact.
In the early twentieth century, Charlotte suburbs began to expand but remained segregated under Jim Crow laws. As the Black middle-class expanded and Johnson C. Smith University grew, White real estate developers Walter S. Alexander, John M. Scott, and A.M. McDonald bought farmland along Beatties Ford Road under Freehold Realty Company in June 1912 and created Washington Heights in 1913, a planned community with no race restriction on owning property. By June 1913, 43 lots had been sold and the expansion continued until the WWI economic depression in 1919.[7]
During this time, Washington Heights high school students (considered grades 7 to 12) had to travel to Second Ward High School, the city's only high school for Black students. To solve the issue, West Charlotte High School, present-day Northwest School of the Arts' campus, was built in 1938 by the city on Thaddeus "Thad" L. Tate's old farm, a Black civic leader and prominent busines man.[8]
In 1954, West Charlotte High School moved further down Beatties Ford, expanding into a new building in the University Park neighborhood, and its original building remained active under the new name Northwest Junior High. After the Supreme Court’s 1971 landmark ruling Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, West Charlotte High School was integrated. Charlotte-Mecklenburg became a national symbol of major school desegregation and cross-town busing policies in the United States.
During the 1970s, parts of Washington Heights was demolished for Brookshire Freeway (I-277). Land originally set aside for a park sold for redevelopment. In Second Ward between 1960 and 1967, the city office developments demolished 1,480 homes, displacing 1,007 predominantly Black families.[9]
The Washington Heights neighborhood is a vibrant historical Black community, but segregation policies and historical displacement constantly deteriorate the neighborhood. However, Northwest School of the Arts began in the1993-94 school year under the guidance of Charlotte-Mecklenburg School superintendent Dr. John Murphy and arts educator Dr. Charles LaBorde, with the mission to revitalize the area's failing school system. The school's popularity grew quickly expanding from middle school into high school, and the first high school class graduated in 1997, with only 25 students.[10]
Northwest School of the Arts now remains one of the top-ranked and most diverse schools in the district.[11]
Mission statement
"We are committed to helping the student develop intellectually, artistically, socially, emotionally, and physically, and in doing so, we will encourage the student to become a contributing member of society." –Northwest School of the Arts
Every morning, Northwest School of the Arts begins the day with a "Daily Affirmation." The affirmation was written by long time dancer, choreographer, and faculty member Chandra McCloud. The affirmation, which follows the Pledge of Allegiance, reads:
"I have a gift. I am talented. I am a doer; not a quitter. I matter to others and to myself. That is why I will be good to others and good to myself. I am a leader. I will walk in my excellence."
Abby Howard, creator of Junior Scientist Power Hour and The Last Halloween
Eva Noblezada, two time Tony Award nominee and actress who starred as Eurydice in the Broadway musical Hadestown from 2018 to August of 2023, and has previously starred as the lead Kim, in Miss Saigon on West End
Reneé Rapp, singer-songwriter and actress who played Regina George in the Broadway musical Mean Girls and movie adaptation Mean Girls (2024) and was the winner of Best Performance by an Actress at the 2018 Jimmy Awards
↑ An African American Album: The Black Experience in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, vol. 2. Charlotte, NC: Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. 1998.
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