It’s 2 p.m. on a mid-Spring Tuesday and the elevators at 254 Granby Street are packed with dancers in warmups, painters with portfolios and teenagers hauling cellos larger than themselves. This is how one school day ends and an afternoon of creative learning begins.
The Governor’s School for the Arts (GSArts) is a public, regional program serving high school students from across southeastern Virginia. Students arrive each afternoon from Chesapeake, Franklin, Portsmouth, Suffolk and, of course, Norfolk and Virginia Beach, to spend their second half of the day getting hands-on, intensive training across six disciplines: dance, visual arts, instrumental music, vocal music, theater/film and musical theater.
From a School Without Walls to a Downtown Footprint
While GSA has existed in various forms since the mid-1980s, its current home, which is divided among three adapted structures downtown, boasts early 20th Century retail architecture that’s been reimagined for today’s needs. Longtime locals may remember the building as being home to W.T. Grant’s in the 1950s. Touches of the store, such as a floor directory and signs pointing to Granby Street, remain. The terrazzo lobby, once trod daily by shoppers, now hosts parents awaiting performance call times. Elevators once built to transport floor-model furniture now carry upright basses, canvases and kilns.
“We were created as a school without walls,” said Assistant Director Debra Thorpe, who guided a recent tour through the facility. For years, GSARTs operated out of scattered borrowed spaces across Norfolk.
Selective, Competitive and Publicly Funded
The program serves about 420 students each year. Students are selected through competitive auditions and interviews, and demand is high. More than 400 applicants typically compete for roughly 100 openings each fall. GSA receives 45 percent of its funding from the state, with the remainder coming from tuition paid by the school districts it serves. A separate foundation supports special initiatives, scholarships and capital improvement.
Thorpe, who retires this summer after decades of work in education, pointed out that GSA’s strength lies not only in its infrastructure but in its people. Every faculty member is a working artist, she says. Better put, the school operates on mentorship by practitioners, not just teachers.
From Local Stages to Global Screens
Among the alumni: Adrienne Warren, who won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Tina Turner on Broadway; Flash star Grant Gustin; and jazz pianist and composer Justin Kauflin, who gained international attention in Keep On Keepin’ On, a documentary chronicling his mentorship with jazz trumpet legend Clark Terry and eventual work with Quincy Jones.
On a weekday afternoon, the building is anything but quiet. In one visual arts classroom, students sketch daily journal prompts that blend the philosophical with the irreverent.One asked herself, “What am I made of?” before filling a page with renderings of cheese. In the ceramics studio, others glaze mugs and sculptural forms. Downstairs, film students fine-tune edits in small bays ahead of their year-end showcase at the Naro Expanded Cinema.
Elsewhere, a violin ensemble rehearses with visible precision. Dancers float and pivot across a floor that was once part of the W.T. Grant stockroom. Musical theater students rehearse a full-length production in one room while, next door, a quiet hallway of individual soundproof practice rooms fills with bursts of soprano arias and jazz standards.
Partnering with Local Orgs
Another perk of attending GSArts is the school’s deep connection with local and regional arts organizations. According to Thorpe, “at the onset of the school, partnerships with arts organizations was always in the plan.”
Some of the groups GSArts students get to work closely with include Virginia Arts Festival, VA Opera and the Virginia Stage Company.
“The larger arts community understands the value of meaningful master classes and want to share their resources with our students,” Thorpe says. “Professionals bring years of real-world experience, offering practical advice, techniques and insights that go beyond academic theory.”
Thorpe adds that working with accomplished artists can inspire students to “push boundaries, stay motivated and envision new possibilities in their field.” She says, “master classes often create direct connections with industry professionals and fellow students, opening doors to future collaborations, mentorships, and job opportunities.”
More Ecosystem Than School
Combine all these elements and you don’t just get a romanticized “school of the arts” but something closer to a functioning arts ecosystem: part pre-professional training ground, part public education experiment and part working studio complex. In short, real art is made here by real students, and the school’s leadership – including Thorpe – wouldn’t have it any other way.
