New Orleans Center for Creative Arts

New Orleans, like few American cities of its size, lives and dies off its arts scene. This is a city unapologetically in love with (and largely built on) the work of its musicians, painters and writers, and many of the next generation of such artists are educated at Nocca. Admission to this prestigious center, one of the best arts schools in the USA, is by audition only. If accepted, students (who are concurrently enrolled in their normal schools) specialize in fields ranging from the visual arts and creative writing to dance and cooking, instructed by artists at the top of their craft. As it is indeed a school, Nocca understandably isn’t open to visitors 24/7, but check the website for details on upcoming public performances, gallery shows, and the like.