SOCAPA School of Creative & Performing Arts
SOCAPA @ NYU PHTS / The New School University Center, Manhattan Greenwich Village Campus, 440 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10003
About
SOCAPA School of Creative & Performing Arts offers teen camps and intensives where students take part in filmmaking, acting, musical theater, photography, dance, music, and online workshops. Depending on the track, students can join programs such as Core Filmmaking, Advanced Film, Screenwriting, Documentary Filmmaking, Acting, Core Acting, Advanced Acting, Musical Theater, Photography, Core Photography, Advanced Photography, Dance, Dance Fusion, Dance Conservatory, Music, Singer-Songwriter Camp, Feature Film Production, City Cinema, and a Screenwriting Workshop. Activities include learning screenwriting, directing, cinematography, producing, editing, performing in student films and live on stage, learning studio, documentary, fine art, and fashion photography, using Lightroom and Photoshop, taking voice lessons and musical direction, choreographed movement and acting-a-song classes, rehearsals, contemporary jazz, fusion, hip-hop, dance on camera, making a solo video for college auditions, and creating and recording original songs with an introduction to the professional workflow of music production, along with organized evening and weekend activities such as field trips to museums, galleries, and studios, karaoke nights, talent shows, games, and Q&A sessions with guest speakers.
• Ages: 14–18 years old
• Schedule: 2 & 3wk Core Filmmaking; 3wk Advanced Film; 2 & 3wk Screenwriting; 2 & 3wk Core Acting; 3wk Advanced Acting; 3wk Musical Theater; 2 & 3wk Core Photography; 3wk Advanced Photography; 2 & 3wk Dance Fusion; 3wk Dance Conservatory; 2 & 3wk Singer-Songwriter Camp; 3wk Advanced Music
• Price: They note that tuition rates increase after each deadline, with an Early Bird Rates deadline of DEC 1, 2025, and a Regular Rates deadline of FEB 1, 2026, and they generally recommend budgeting approximately $300 per week to cover meals.
SOCAPA School of Creative & Performing Arts was founded by a small collective of New York artists in Greenwich Village in 2001, and they state they have 24 years in education. The program is led by Founder and Executive Director Jamie Yerkes. They describe themselves as one of the premier visual and performing arts programs for high school teens ages 14 to 18 and state that they are proud of the professional level of training they offer and of the safe, inclusive, supportive, and celebratory environment they welcome students to be part of. They report having 18,447 happy alumni representing 94 countries and operating under a rolling admissions policy, and they state that three-week programs are designed with college applications in mind and that students in three-week programs leave with a portfolio ready to showcase their work. They also report that an overwhelming number of alumni are going on to attend top visual and performing art schools in the nation, including Yale School of Drama, USC, NYU, RISD, SCAD, Parsons, UCLA, SVA, LMU, U of Arts, and Emerson, and that a Director of Admissions at FSU, one of the top film schools in the country, wrote to thank them for their work.
They state that teachers are leaders in their fields and that the faculty are dedicated to their craft and to passing on their knowledge to the next generation of artists. City Cinema is described by the program as a groundbreaking, year-round, extracurricular film and acting program for high school teens. They offer both day student and residential options in New York City, and day or residential (sleep-away) camps in Los Angeles and Vermont, and they also offer year-round intensives in New York City. For pre-college students at the Manhattan campus, they state that students are responsible for purchasing their own meals, that The New School University Center cafeteria is open for breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM and accepts cash and credit cards, and that residential students have the option to purchase a “Dining Dollars” meal plan directly through The New School University, with a general recommendation to budget approximately $300 per week to cover meals.
Parent and student comments reported by the program include praise for staff and teachers, descriptions of the final showcase as incredible, and references to mature, creative, and inspiring teachers and counselors, friendly and mutually supportive campers, exciting and well-supervised leisure activities, and a very professional setting. One parent from Georgia described the instruction and hands-on learning as outstanding and called it the best program of its kind they had encountered, and a student from Florida stated that everyone at the program is overwhelmingly supportive and wants the best for each participant.
Last updated December 25, 2025.
• Ages: 14–18 years old
• Schedule: 2 & 3wk Core Filmmaking; 3wk Advanced Film; 2 & 3wk Screenwriting; 2 & 3wk Core Acting; 3wk Advanced Acting; 3wk Musical Theater; 2 & 3wk Core Photography; 3wk Advanced Photography; 2 & 3wk Dance Fusion; 3wk Dance Conservatory; 2 & 3wk Singer-Songwriter Camp; 3wk Advanced Music
• Price: They note that tuition rates increase after each deadline, with an Early Bird Rates deadline of DEC 1, 2025, and a Regular Rates deadline of FEB 1, 2026, and they generally recommend budgeting approximately $300 per week to cover meals.
SOCAPA School of Creative & Performing Arts was founded by a small collective of New York artists in Greenwich Village in 2001, and they state they have 24 years in education. The program is led by Founder and Executive Director Jamie Yerkes. They describe themselves as one of the premier visual and performing arts programs for high school teens ages 14 to 18 and state that they are proud of the professional level of training they offer and of the safe, inclusive, supportive, and celebratory environment they welcome students to be part of. They report having 18,447 happy alumni representing 94 countries and operating under a rolling admissions policy, and they state that three-week programs are designed with college applications in mind and that students in three-week programs leave with a portfolio ready to showcase their work. They also report that an overwhelming number of alumni are going on to attend top visual and performing art schools in the nation, including Yale School of Drama, USC, NYU, RISD, SCAD, Parsons, UCLA, SVA, LMU, U of Arts, and Emerson, and that a Director of Admissions at FSU, one of the top film schools in the country, wrote to thank them for their work.
They state that teachers are leaders in their fields and that the faculty are dedicated to their craft and to passing on their knowledge to the next generation of artists. City Cinema is described by the program as a groundbreaking, year-round, extracurricular film and acting program for high school teens. They offer both day student and residential options in New York City, and day or residential (sleep-away) camps in Los Angeles and Vermont, and they also offer year-round intensives in New York City. For pre-college students at the Manhattan campus, they state that students are responsible for purchasing their own meals, that The New School University Center cafeteria is open for breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM and accepts cash and credit cards, and that residential students have the option to purchase a “Dining Dollars” meal plan directly through The New School University, with a general recommendation to budget approximately $300 per week to cover meals.
Parent and student comments reported by the program include praise for staff and teachers, descriptions of the final showcase as incredible, and references to mature, creative, and inspiring teachers and counselors, friendly and mutually supportive campers, exciting and well-supervised leisure activities, and a very professional setting. One parent from Georgia described the instruction and hands-on learning as outstanding and called it the best program of its kind they had encountered, and a student from Florida stated that everyone at the program is overwhelmingly supportive and wants the best for each participant.
Last updated December 25, 2025.
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