First Group of Students Experience Newly Built Visual Arts and Design Academy at Santa Barbara High School
Patricia Martellotti
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Students are focusing on creativity at Santa Barbara High School.
Getting to learn about painting drawing sketching, all at the school’s newly built Visual Arts and Design Academy known as VADA, made this year extra special for them.
“Definitely the space and the tools are all super … a lot more accessible in this building and I mean I couldn’t have ever imagined being able to work in a space like this before,” said art student Sabrina Toye of Santa Barbara High School.
Since its opening in August 2024, students like how the new facility gives them flexible classrooms, a photography studio and open space.
“it’s humongous and it’s really nice to be able to have the fresh air with the doors open … and I feel like I’m in my space able to use all the materials that I want,” said art student Jasmine Odair of Santa Barbara High School.
The new VADA building is now proving to be useful for a variety of events throughout the school year.
“Flexibility was a key design value and so we’re doing things in the building that we had no idea we would do, but the building allows us to do because we’ve made it so flexible,” said VADA program director Daniel Barnett of Santa Barbara High School.
“I know I’m gonna look back and be like wow this was a really amazing space that I got to spend time with and maybe in the future if I do Art. I don’t think I’m gonna be able to have a studio space again like this it’s not gonna be comparable cause it’s just like amazing,” said Toye.
Now that the new facility is fully operational, VADA’s enrollment is projected to grow.
And just like the new space, VADA’s future is limitless.
This project was made possible by the California Department of Education, Santa Barbara Unified School District, and Friends of VADA.
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