A Community Arts High School

The school system in Puerto Rico has long been negotiating between political, community, and environmental pressures. The closing of several hundred schools within the system has resulted in greater tensions between communities and the government agencies trying to manage the school system. The devastation of Hurricane Maria has only further agitated these existing problems, while bringing many new ones. Operating within this period of great flux, the neighborhood of Santurce, located within the city of San Juan, has used public art as a catalyst to spark change within its community. In doing so, Santurce has begun to address many of the problems within its community, fostering the accumulation of creative capital, and allowing for a new community identity to emerge. The Rafael Cordero Molina High School, situated within the heart of Santurce’s artistic revival, presents an opportunity to re-conceptualize the identity of the public high school as an extension of its community, and providing a means to mediate between the school as a community asset, and the school as political entity. Considering the re-design of the school, anticipating its dual-use, as both a learning center and evacuation center, can allow for its new identity to address the pressures in times of instability and natural disaster. Its urban identity can be leveraged to better connect the school as a hub of urban activity, facilitating a student community that participates within the larger artistic community. Plugging into the burgeoning arts culture can help to brings a voice to the school and its community, and advocate for arts and cultural resiliency as an avenue for recovery.