The Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) is a government-run secondary school for artistically gifted and talented children and adolescents. It implements a special secondary education program committed to the conservation and promotion of the Filipino artistic and cultural traditions.
Since its inception in 1977, the PHSA has strived to develop the expertise and potentials of its artists-scholars, faculty, and staff to achieve the school’s thrust of instilling pride in the Filipino people’s artistic and cultural traditions.
Aside from academic and artistic training, the PHSA provides its students with opportunities for cultural appreciation that will contribute to their development as artists for others. The experience of living away from home and integrating with peers in this special residential high school cultivates in the young artists an attitude of independence tempered by the spirit of cooperation as they create art together. The site of the school is a vital factor in making the PHSA a most ideal learning institution. The mystical mountain of Maria Makiling is deemed to be powerful source of inspiration for artistic endeavors among young artists and their mentors. From time to time, local and foreign artists hold interaction sessions with the scholars of the PHSA to firm up their resolve to work for national understanding through culture and art education. Determined in its belief that artists play a key role in national development, the PHSA continously innovates programs that directly address the educational, social emotional, economic and cultural realities in the country.
Indeed, the creative works of our young artists celebrate past and the present view of their generation. By defining the past and the present, not only their works of art add value to our lives - they help us appreciate the future.