Our History
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The
NEVADA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
was chartered as an independent non-profit
community arts school on July 7, 1977.
The School, however, had earlier origins. It was known first as the Saturday Conservatory, an outreach program of the Music Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Early operations also included highly successful summer arts camps located at Mt. Charleston.
The School continued to operate in University facilities until 1991, at the time the administrative offices and main teaching center moved to the campus of Paradise Elementary School. During the summer of 1994, the administrative offices and main teaching center moved to the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and Visual Arts in downtown Las Vegas at 315 South 7th Street.
Musical instruction and art classes are also taught in branch locations scattered throughout the Las Vegas Valley. During the summer of 2004 the school vacated the site on 7th Street and moved into its present location at 4170 South Decatur.
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Future Site of the
Nevada School of the Arts
The 5th Street School, a 70-year-old former elementary school complex, located on Las Vegas Boulevard between the Lewis Street pedestrian corridor and Clark Avenue, was completed during the Depression Era, shortly after Hoover Dam was constructed. The facility and its site, which are owned and being renovated for reuse by the RDA, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Nevada School of the Art will be part of this “cultural oasis” in the heart of downtown Las Vegas.
