California Institute of the Arts: Where Experimentation Is the Curriculum

California Institute of the Arts, known universally as CalArts, is one of the most unusual and influential art schools in the world. Founded in 1961 through the merger of the Chouinard Art Institute and the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, with significant support from Walt Disney, CalArts was conceived from the beginning as a place where artists working in different disciplines could learn from and with each other. The school's founding vision was radical: a single institution where visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, and theater makers would share a campus and a community, creating the conditions for genuine cross-disciplinary exchange.

More than sixty years later, that founding vision remains the defining characteristic of CalArts. The school's alumni include some of the most significant figures in contemporary art, animation, film, and music, and its influence on American culture is disproportionate to its small size. Tim Burton, John Lasseter, Mark Bradford, Mike Kelley, David Salle, and dozens of other artists who have shaped their respective fields all studied at CalArts. The school's animation program, in particular, has had an extraordinary influence on the history of American animation, producing the artists who created or shaped some of the most important animated films and television series of the past four decades.

The School of Art

CalArts' School of Art offers BFA and MFA programs in Art (Fine Arts), Graphic Design, Photography and Media, and Integrated Media. The programs share CalArts' institutional commitment to experimental practice and critical engagement, and they benefit from the school's broader culture of interdisciplinary exchange.

The MFA in Art is a two-year program that provides advanced studio space and close mentorship from faculty who are significant figures in contemporary art. The program has a strong conceptual orientation, reflecting the influence of the Conceptual Art movement that was closely associated with CalArts in the 1970s, when artists like John Baldessari taught there and shaped a generation of artists who went on to define postmodern art practice. Baldessari's influence is still felt in the program's emphasis on ideas, language, and the questioning of art's assumptions.

The BFA in Art is a four-year program that combines studio practice with critical studies, art history, and the kind of cross-disciplinary exposure that CalArts' integrated campus makes possible. Students in the School of Art regularly attend performances, screenings, and concerts by students in the other schools, and this exposure to different artistic disciplines is built into the culture rather than being an optional extra.

The Animation Programs

CalArts' animation programs are among the most famous and influential in the world. The Character Animation program has produced an extraordinary number of the animators, directors, and producers who have shaped American animation, including many of the key figures at Pixar, DreamWorks, and Disney Animation. The program's approach combines rigorous training in the principles of classical animation with exposure to contemporary approaches and a culture of creative ambition that has consistently produced graduates who push the medium forward.

The Experimental Animation program is less well known but equally significant, producing artists who use animation as a fine art medium rather than an entertainment industry tool. Graduates of the Experimental Animation program show work in galleries and film festivals, and the program has contributed significantly to the development of animation as a serious art form.

Critical Studies and Interdisciplinary Work

One of CalArts' most distinctive features is its School of Critical Studies, which offers programs in Creative Writing, Aesthetics and Politics, and Writing for Performance. Critical Studies is not a service department that provides general education to students in other schools; it is a school in its own right, with its own faculty and its own intellectual culture. The presence of Critical Studies on campus means that CalArts students have access to serious engagement with theory, criticism, and writing as part of their education, which shapes the intellectual culture of the entire institution.

The Integrated Media program is explicitly interdisciplinary, providing a framework for students whose work crosses the boundaries between visual art, sound, performance, and technology. The program reflects CalArts' founding vision of a school where different artistic disciplines genuinely inform each other.

The Los Angeles Context

CalArts' location in Valencia, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles, places it within reach of one of the world's most important art and entertainment centers. Los Angeles has one of the most significant contemporary art scenes in the world, with major galleries, museums including LACMA, the Hammer Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, and a film and television industry that provides employment for many CalArts graduates.

The school's connections to the Los Angeles art world are strong, with faculty who are active in the city's galleries and institutions and alumni who have shaped the city's cultural landscape. For students interested in the intersection of fine art and commercial media, the Los Angeles location provides opportunities that are difficult to find elsewhere.

Tuition and Financial Aid

Tuition at CalArts for the 2025-26 academic year is approximately $58,996, with total cost of attendance estimated at around $80,000. CalArts offers need-based financial aid and merit scholarships, and the school encourages all applicants to apply for financial assistance. Graduate students have access to teaching assistantships and fellowship funding, and the school maintains connections with foundations and organizations that support graduate study in the arts.

The Bottom Line

CalArts is one of the most genuinely experimental art schools in the world, with a culture of creative ambition and interdisciplinary exchange that has produced an extraordinary number of significant artists, animators, and filmmakers. For students who want to work in an environment that takes experimentation seriously, that values ideas as much as technique, and that places them in a community of artists working across disciplines, CalArts offers an educational experience that is difficult to find anywhere else. The school's alumni record speaks for itself: CalArts graduates have shaped American culture in ways that far exceed what a school of 1,500 students might be expected to produce.