NEW ORLEANS — Graduates of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) are securing a record level of college funding, with the Class of 2026 earning $49 million and counting in scholarships and grants, marking the highest total in the school’s history.
The milestone reflects rising scholarship totals and the role of institutional support in expanding access to higher education. Of the total, more than $33 million, or about 67%, went to students who received financial aid through the NOCCA Foundation. The foundation provides assistance for tuition, materials and other costs tied to the school’s pre-professional arts training.
The foundation allocated approximately $201,000 in direct financial support to students in the graduating class, funding that leaders say helped unlock significantly larger scholarship offers from colleges and universities.
The NOCCA Foundation raises funding through a mix of donor support, sponsorships and events such as its annual ART&SOUL gala and “Home for the Holidays” Fundraiser, with proceeds supporting student aid, faculty resources and program initiatives. The organization also operates student support and artist residency programs and makes campus facilities available for rentals, creating additional revenue streams tied to arts, education and corporate events.
NOCCA – Student Outcomes And Workforce Impact
NOCCA leaders say those investments are reflected in consistently high college placement rates, with roughly 95% to 98% of graduates continuing on to college or conservatory programs and the majority receiving some form of scholarship support.
Over time, that combination of philanthropic investment and program funding has helped position NOCCA as a pipeline for both higher education access and workforce development in the creative industries, with alumni including Jon Batiste, Wynton Marsalis and Wendell Pierce contributing to that track record.
The latest figures continue a pattern of growth for NOCCA, where scholarship totals are often used as a measure of both student achievement and the long-term workforce value of arts education in New Orleans, where culture, tourism and creative industries form a major part of the regional economy and helped drive more than $10.4 billion in visitor spending in 2024 alone.
NOCCA offers training across disciplines including music, visual arts, theatre, dance, media arts, culinary arts and creative writing. The National Endowment for the Arts reported in 2025 that arts and cultural industries contributed roughly $1.2 trillion to the U.S. economy and supported nearly 5.4 million jobs.
In addition, a 2025 Strategic National Arts Alumni Project survey found that arts and design graduates frequently work across both creative and non-creative professions, often in hybrid careers requiring communication, adaptability and interdisciplinary skills.
