Nashville is called the “Athens of the South” because of its acclaimed tradition of supporting education, culture, and the arts, especially music. At St. Cecilia Academy, we share our city’s impassioned dedication to excellence in the fine arts, inspired in large part by our patron, St. Cecilia, and her love for all that is good, true, and beautiful. Starting freshman year, students at St. Cecilia Academy develop an appreciation for the arts through exposure to drama, dance, visual art, and choir in the Visual and Performing Arts (VAP) class. Students are required to take two credits of fine arts, which allows many students the opportunity to take advanced classes in the arts and discover interests and talents they did not even know they had. In their classes students gain the skills to analyze and critique their own works, as well as those of fellow classmates and those of the great artists of history. Each of the fine arts disciplines emphasizes hands-on formation in skills and technique as well as opportunities for public performance or display. Exposure to the fine arts offers St. Cecilia students an appreciation of beauty, growth in confidence and poise, and recognition of the dedication to excellence and self-discipline that the fine arts demand.