A LIVING CLASSROOM
The Foundation believes there is no more appropriate way to honor the great talent of James Dean than to restore a building that was pivotal in his professional development, to its original purpose of educating young actors.

Our mission is to transform the boarded-up Fairmount High School, now badly in need of major restoration, into a permanent, national monument to the acting career, talent, and charisma of James Dean. Intrinsic to that goal is the return of young actors to the exact same classrooms, stage and auditorium where Dean learned to be an actor. This will not be a sealed-off museum to be observed from behind a velvet rope, but a working community-based educational resource center, a venue where live learning takes place.

THE FAIRMOUNT COMMUNITY
Not only is Fairmount High School an icon of a bygone era in small-town Midwest American history, but it is also located in a community that has hardly changed at all over the years.  The Center will be used for educating young actors and helping them refine their acting skills, in the same small-town atmosphere that produced James Dean. The balance of the building will be used for various community educational and cultural purposes, fully in keeping with the overall purposes of the Foundation.