Andrew Varnon ’00G

You could judge the success of the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts School (PVPA) by counting the alumni touring the country in off-Broadway shows or with pop music bands. Or, you could consider the dance of the amino acids, as students doing a science project assume the roles of amino acids and dance in order to show how the amino acids come together to form various proteins. Or in another example: a history student dons beard and cigar to assume the character of Fidel Castro for his presentation on the Cuban revolution.

“When Ljuba [Marsh] and I started the school, we dreamed that we would find a way to teach everything through the arts, so that arts could never be cut from the curriculum of the school again. You know how every time there’s a budget crunch, the arts go?” says PVPA cofounder Bob Brick ’72. “We wanted to create a world where you couldn’t even think of how you’d teach chemistry without the arts.”

Twelve years after Marsh and Brick founded the public charter school, that vision has become a reality. First located in Hadley, PVPA moved in 2005 to its present location, a converted office building sitting on a hill above the Connecticut River in South Hadley. The school now has about 400 students from grades seven to 12 and a waiting list about 300 deep. The school day at PVPA is eight hours long and features about five hours of traditional academic classes (although not necessarily taught in the traditional way) and two or three hours of music, theater, dance and the backstage arts. In addition, many students stay after school for performance rehearsals.

Brick credits his time at UMass Amherst for inspiring him to be an educator and an innovator. As a student, he was part of an experimental program on campus called Project 10 that sought to create a smaller, more intimate residential learning community within the larger campus. Such student-directed learning within a consciously tight-knit community taught him that “being at school is more than facts and figures; it’s also how you learn and who you learn with.” He went on to study in the School of Education and got his master’s at Harvard, but it took him 25 years to get back into the field.

Brick had worked in juvenile detention, public housing, and mental health services. While laid off from a job in 1995, a parent at his kid’s Audubon Camp advised him, “You should call Ljuba Marsh.”

He knew Marsh—they had worked together—but what neither of them knew is that they shared the same dream to start a school focusing on the performing arts. Once they discovered their shared vision, they called the state Department of Education to find out how to start a charter school. Despite the challenges, Brick said the idea for the school had a broad appeal in the Valley and the obstacles seemed to melt away like magic.

There are no auditions to get into PVPA; the selection is made by lottery. There is also no football team, no bells, no hall passes, and no cafeteria—students brownbag their lunch or order pizza delivery. But every Friday, there is an open mic where students sign up to try out new material in front of 180 or so of their fellow students. And this year’s calendar features 15 main stage shows, including King Lear and Hair.

PVPA’s graduation is held in Northampton’s Calvin Theater, and although it contains about 25 minutes of the traditional announcing of diplomas, the heart and soul of the graduation is an hour-long show that the graduating seniors perform. The tickets are free, but the house is packed every spring, Brick says. “It’s the toughest ticket in town—everybody wants to see it. It is the most positive, up experience you’ll ever see.”