(''Seize the Day'') , city = Erie , state =

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, country =

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, type =

Residential A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

Public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

, established = 1973 , district = , director = Douglas Woods , faculty = , grades = 11th and 12th , mascot = , campus = Mercyhurst College , enrollment = about 200 , mascot image = , colors = , homepage = http://pgse.org The Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts (PGSA) was one of the

Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence The Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence (PGSE) are five-week, publicly funded summer program for gifted high school students. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell cut funding for the PGSE program in the state's 2009-2010 budget. Five of the ...

, a group of five-week summer academies for gifted high school students in the Commonwealth of

. The school was hosted each summer first by

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a private liberal arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts and Sciences, Freeman College of Management, and the College of Engineering. ...

, then by Mercyhurst College. PGSA was defunded by Pennsylvania's 2009–2010 state budget.

Overview

Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts was established earliest among eight such Governor's schools. Like other

, PGSA operated on a state-funded, scholarship basis. Upon its inception in 1973 under

Milton Shapp Milton Jerrold Shapp (born Milton Jerrold Shapiro; June 25, 1912 – November 24, 1994) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 40th governor of Pennsylvania from 1971 to 1979 and the first Jewish governor of Pennsylvania. H ...

, PGSA was hosted at

in Lewisburg under the direction of Arthur Gatty, who led the program until 1988. It was seen as an early leader in such programs, and among the first in the country. By 1985, the school drew 225 students from 2,000 applicants. In 1990, the program was relocated to Mercyhurst College in Erie. Similar to a college experience, students took various classes associated with a "major" in one of five art areas: creative writing,

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

, or

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

. In addition to these classes, students selected an elective class in an art area other than their primary. Collaboration and multifaceted projects were encouraged and common. Alongside classes, nightly performances and gallery shows combined with a broad range of social activities and special events to create a unique experience similar to that of an artists' colony.

Defunding

Governor Ed Rendell's 2009–2010 budget proposed cutting funding for all the schools in the PGSE program, including PGSA. The program was discontinued in 2009, after 36 years of operation.

Notable alumni

* Kevin Bacon ('74) *

Melinda Wagner Melinda Jane Wagner (born 1957 in Philadelphia) is a US composer, and winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in music. Her undergraduate degree is from Hamilton College. She received her graduates degrees from University of Chicago and University of P ...

(composer) ('74) * Richard O'Donnell (playwright) ('74) *

Aaron Jay Kernis Aaron Jay Kernis (born January 15, 1960) is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as Direct ...

('75) *

Megan Gallagher Megan Gallagher (born February 6, 1960) is an American theater and television actress. Having studied at the Juilliard School under the supervision of John Houseman, Gallagher began her career on stage, and has appeared in several Broadway theat ...

('76) *

Gary Schocker Gary Schocker (born October 18, 1959) is an American flutist, composer, and pianist who has performed with the New York Philharmonic (at age 15, in a nationally televised Young People's Concert), the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphon ...

('76) *

Boris Bally Boris Bally is an American artist and metal smith in Providence, Rhode Island. Background Born 1961 to Swiss Parents, Doris and Alex Bally who had just immigrated to Chicago so that Alex could study at Illinois Institute of Technology. Doris took c ...

('77) *

Ian Gallanar Ian Gallanar is an American theatre director. He is the founder and current Artistic Director of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.Remembering Ellicott City: Stories from the Patapsco River Valley Janet P. Kusterer, Victoria Goeller - 2009- Page ...

('78) *

Suzanne Keen Suzanne Keen is a literary scholar, feminist critic, a poet, author and academic administrator. She is W. M. Keck Foundation Presidential Chair and Professor of English at Scripps College, the women's college of the Claremont Colleges. Previously ...

('79) *

Daniel Roebuck Daniel James Roebuck (born March 4, 1963) is an American actor and writer. His best known roles include Deputy Marshal Robert Biggs in ''The Fugitive'' and its spinoff film ''U.S. Marshals'', Jay Leno in ''The Late Shift'', and Dr. Leslie Arz ...

('79) * Alice Sebold ('79) *

Julia Kasdorf Julia Mae Spicher Kasdorf (born December 6, 1962) is an American poet. Early years and education Born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, Julia Spicher grew up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh near Irwin, Pennsylvania, Irwin, Westmor ...

('80) *

Tina Fey Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (; born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and playwright. She is best known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (1997–2006) and for creating the ...

('87) *

Ari Hoenig Ari Hoenig (born November 13, 1973) is an American jazz drummer, composer, and educator. Educational materials Hoenig has taught and is on the faculty at New York University and The New School in New York. He gives clinics and lectures at music ...

('90) * Asali Solomon ('90) * Steven Burns ('91) *

Meagan Miller Meagan Miller is an American soprano with an active international career in opera, recital and concert. Early life Miller was born in Wilmington, Delaware and grew up in West Chester, Ohio and Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She attended high school ...

('91) *

Matthew Hoch Matthew Hoch (born December 29, 1975 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American academic and teacher of singing. Hoch is currently professor of voice at Auburn University, where he teaches applied voice, lyric diction, and vocal literature courses. ...

('93) * Zachary Quinto ('94) * Neal Dodson ('94) *

Stephen Karam Stephen Karam (born ) is an American playwright, screenwriter and director. His plays ''Sons of the Prophet'', a comedy-drama about a Lebanese-American family, and '' The Humans'' were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2012 and 2016, ...

('97) * Katharine Beutner ('98) * Gillian Jacobs ('99) * Andy Mientus ('04) *

Derek Hansen Derek Hansen (London, 1944) is a novelist and short story writer. He is the author of the 1993 book ''Lunch With The Generals''. Hansen is known for his four book Lunch with... Series. He was born in England, raised in New Zealand. He now lives i ...

('07)

References

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