The Chicago Academy for the Arts, founded in 1981, is an independent high school for the performing and visual arts located in the River West neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It was named a National School of Distinction by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Academy offers a co-curricular program: college-preparatory academic classes and professional-level arts training. The school day consists of six academic periods followed by a three-plus hour immersion in one of six arts disciplines: Dance, Media Arts (filmmaking, animation, creative writing), Music, Musical Theatre, Theatre, and Visual Arts. Students participate in more than 100 productions throughout the course of the school year, including concerts, plays, readings, screenings, recordings, and exhibitions.