RESEARCH: New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA)

The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts is a regional, pre-professional arts training center that offers secondary school-age children intensive instruction in dance, media arts, music (classical, jazz, vocal), theatre arts (drama, musical theatre, theatre design) , visual arts, and creative writing, while demanding simultaneous excellence. NOCCA was founded in 1973 by a diverse coalition of artists, educators, business leaders, and community activists who saw the need for an institution devoted to our region’s burgeoning young talent. Today, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet, Wendell Pierce, and Saints former cornerback Ashley Ambrose are only a few NOCCA graduates who can attest to the extraordinary educational opportunity the Center represents to the children of Louisiana.
NOCCA’s track record over the past quarter-century speaks for itself: every year a remarkable 95 - 98% of NOCCA graduates go on to college and conservatory programs across the country—compared to only 56% of local non-NOCCA graduates. Furthermore, approximately 80% of NOCCA students receive scholarships to pursue such higher education. The key to NOCCA’s success is the ethic of discipline and responsibility it instills in students, which prepares them for productive adult lives whether or not they choose to pursue arts careers.
Admission to NOCCA is by audition only. Our annual application season takes place each fall for the following school year. Auditions take place each spring from applications received within the posted application deadline. For specific schedules please visit the application page.
Created and maintained by the Orleans Parish School Board for 27 years, NOCCA became a state agency in July 2000. The program is tuition-free to all Louisiana students who meet audition requirements. Currently, students from over 100 public, private and parochial schools attend in the afternoon, late-day, on Saturdays or during the summer session.