Established in 1895, Milwaukee High School of the Arts (MHSA), formerly West Division Sr. High School, is a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, United States. It is a part of the

Milwaukee Public Schools Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is the largest school district in Wisconsin. As of the 2015–16 school year, MPS served 75,568 students in 154 schools and had 9,636 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff positions. The Milwaukee Public Schools system i ...

system. It specializes in preparation for a profession in the arts. Students receive a minimum of two hours of arts study each day. Focus is given to creative outlets such as dance, writing, theater, technical theater, visual arts, and music. The school is open for auditions to students from the

Milwaukee metropolitan area The Milwaukee metropolitan area (also known as Metro Milwaukee or Greater Milwaukee) is a major metropolitan area located in Southeastern Wisconsin, consisting of the city of Milwaukee and the surrounding area. There are several definitions of the ...

. In 2005, the MHSA Artvarks, their ComedySportz Improvisational High School League Team took home the State Championship.

History

West Division High School opened in 1895 in what was known as the "Plankinton library block" on Grand Avenue downtown, but a building was built to house the new school in 1896 between 22nd and 23rd Streets on what was then called Prairie Street. C. E. McLenagan was the first principal.Watrous, Jerome A. (ed.).
Memoirs of Milwaukee County: From the Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present, Including a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families in Milwaukee County, Volume 1
'. Chicago: Western Historical Association, 1909, pp. 405, 414. In 1958, the current structure was built, facing the original facility across what was by then called Highland Boulevard. The

system began designating a number of specialty or

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

s in 1976. West Division was designated to house the Law Specialty and Navy

ROTC The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in al ...

programs, until in 1984 the Milwaukee Board of School Directors moved those programs to Bay View High School and elected to transform West Division into an arts school.

References

External links

Milwaukee High School of the Arts website
{{authority control High schools in Milwaukee Art schools in Wisconsin Schools of the performing arts in the United States Educational institutions established in 1895 Public high schools in Wisconsin Magnet schools in Wisconsin 1895 establishments in Wisconsin