Equality and a New Vision for Art Education: The Ralph Opacic Perspective

I had dreams just like any other kid. Picture this: a wide-eyed Virginia boy, with his heart set on becoming the next Billy Joel. At a young age, I packed my bags and headed to California to pursue my music career in hopes to become the next big thing. But, during my years in school, I realized another dream that didn’t involve sold out venues and late nights — it was education. I discovered that sharing my love of the arts with young people was my true calling. school develops young people to continue on to professional music, dance and theater and applied arts careers, and Fast forward several years and I wanted to spread the gift of performing and visual arts to a wider audience, so I opened an after-school arts program. What started as a small program in 1987 turned into a school with more than a dozen conservatories, serving kids in 100 cities in Southern California.

It was called The Orange County School of the Arts. Now, the program sees 2,300 students a year (grades 7–12) and serves students from all socioeconomic backgrounds.

What was my mission? To provide unparalleled arts education for students who had the passion, commitment and drive to pursue their dreams, no matter their upbringing, ethnicity or financial status.

Orange County School of The Arts is a donation-dependent public charter school where no student is offered or denied admission based on financial capacity. All that’s required is a strong will, passion, and talent in the fine arts.

The school develops young people to continue on to professional music, dance and theater and applied arts careers, and to finish their education at top-tier schools like Harvard and Stanford. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges — WASC.