About Academy

As a boarding arts high school, we give our artists an exceptional pre-professional education, and we also recognize their art is just the beginning of who they will become–and what they will do– as Citizen Artists.

Idyllwild Arts Academy commencement.

Idyllwild Arts emboldens and cultivates the artist as:

An Interdisciplinary Thinker

Master teachers guide the practice of creativity and connectivity within and across all subject areas, instilling in students a well-honed and nuanced ability to think critically and holistically and to problem-solve with agility and imagination.

When I was in college, my classes were unrelated to one another but informed each other, and that’s the interdisciplinary curriculum at Idyllwild Arts. There are a lot of crossed paths in my life and my thinking, and my work thrives because of that.

Alum
A student working with wires.

An Individual

Idyllwild’s intimate size, scale, and deliberately secluded location provides a sanctuary for self-discovery, maintaining the space for students to undertake the journey of self-recognition, while nurturing their independence and originality.

This is a place where anyone can be themselves.

Student
A cellist playing cello outside.

A Partner

Idyllwild Arts actively curates an environment promoting collaboration over competition to move beyond mere conservatory prep. At Idyllwild Arts, each student is uplifted and supported by their peers and expected to do the same in return.

Idyllwild Arts is a community that supports not just what the teachers are doing, but every single student. Every single day in every way. I’ve never been a part of something like this before. It really is extraordinary.

Faculty Member
Two dancers.

A Citizen

As an international, multicultural community representative of authentic and multilayered diversity, Idyllwild members engage in the earnest dialogues about identity that prove integral to becoming both world-focused citizens and their fuller selves.

My child is becoming a citizen of the world–all discovered at Idyllwild Arts on a mountaintop.

Parent
Four students.

An Apprentice to Nature

Inspired by the Cahuilla land on which the community dwells, Idyllwild Arts embraces the sacredness of all spaces, both within and without. All members respect and seek the human-nature relationship daily as one rich in lessons and vital to personal and societal evolution.

The ever-presence of nature is a driving force for so many lessons. It’s grounding. It’s connection. It’s a part of understanding our human purpose.

Faculty Member
A student using an iPad outside.
Idyllwild landscape.

Accepting Applications for Fall 2024