The Difference Makers: Oakland School For The Arts

Oakland School for the Arts: Fostering the Next Generation of Creative Leaders

Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) is not your typical public school. As a tuition-free, audition-based charter school serving students in grades 6–12, OSA delivers industry-aligned arts education while prioritizing enrollment for low-income students. From digital media and theater to visual art and vocal performance, its programs are designed to prepare students for both higher education and professional creative careers. And it’s working.

Roughly 80% of OSA’s seniors are accepted into four-year colleges and universities each year, while many graduates go directly into the creative workforce, bringing the essential value of the arts with them into industries across the globe. After nearly 25 years, the impact of OSA’s alumni spans far beyond the Bay Area. At the heart of OSA’s mission is a belief that creativity and resilience are essential to the next generation of problem solvers, innovators, and cultural contributors. The school fosters these values in every classroom, rehearsal space, and studio, creating not just artists, but leaders.

Despite ongoing funding challenges in public education, OSA has never compromised the quality of its arts instruction. This commitment to excellence is deeply personal to the school’s leadership. Having started at OSA as an 8th-grade teacher two decades ago, the current Executive Director, Mike Oz is now guiding the school into its next chapter focused on financial sustainability and facility expansion to serve even more students.

What keeps the team going?

The kids. Anyone who walks the halls of OSA can feel the energy, talent, and purpose that defines this remarkable community.

At Oakland School for the Arts, that spirit of dedication is more than a motto—it’s a way of life.