California College of the Arts


California College of the Arts is an art, design, architecture, and writing school with two campuses in California, one in San Francisco and one in Oakland. Founded in 1907, it enrolls approximately 1,500 undergraduates and 500 graduate students.

History

CCA was founded in 1907 by Frederick Meyer in Berkeley as the School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts during the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. The Arts and Crafts movement originated in Europe during the late 19th century as a response to the industrial aesthetics of the machine age. Followers of the movement advocated an integrated approach to art, design, and craft. Today, Frederick Meyer's "practical art school" is an internationally known and respected institution, drawing students from around the world.
In 1908 the school was renamed California School of Arts and Crafts, and in 1936 it became the California College of Arts and Crafts.
The college's Oakland campus location was acquired in 1922, when Meyer bought the four-acre James Treadwell estate at Broadway and College Avenue. Two of its buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Oakland campus still houses the more traditional, craft based studios like the art glass, jewelry metal arts, printmaking, painting, sculpture and ceramic programs.
In 1940 a Master of Fine Arts program was established.
In 2003 the college changed its name to California College of the Arts.

Academics

CCA offers 22 undergraduate and 13 graduate majors. CCA confers the bachelor of fine arts, bachelor of arts, bachelor of architecture, master of fine arts, master of arts, master of architecture, master of advanced architectural design, masters of design and master of business administration degrees.
The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, located near the San Francisco campus in a new facility on Kansas St., is a forum for contemporary culture. In 2013 the Wattis Institute recruited a new director, Anthony Huberman, formerly of Artist's Space in New York.
In 2018, U.S. News and World Report listed the California College of the Arts as having the 15th best Fine Arts program in the United States. PayScale lists CCA as the #1 art school in the United States for return on investment and #3 for average alumni salary.

Alumni

Alumni Robert Arneson and Peter Voulkos and faculty member Viola Frey helped establish the medium of ceramics as a fine art and were closely linked to the emergence of the 1960s ceramics movement. The photorealist movement of the 1970s is represented by current faculty member Jack Mendenhall and alumni Robert Bechtle and Richard McLean. Alumni Nathan Oliveira and Manuel Neri were leaders in the Bay Area Figurative Movement. Marvin Lipofsky founded CCA's Glass Program in 1967 and was important in the Studio Glass movement.
Noted alumni include the artists ;

Academia

Ceramics

Two school faculty, William Bragdon and Chauncey Thomas established Berkeley's first art pottery company California Faience.
Listed noted faculty both past and present, in alphabetical order by department and last name.

Curators

CCA is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and the National Architectural Accrediting Board.