California Institute of the Arts

The California Institute of the Arts is commonly referred to as CalArts. This college is located in Valencia, California, which is a suburb of Los Angeles, California. CalArts is authorized by the state of California to grant Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in the visual, performing, and literary arts.

A school created by Walt Disney in the early sixties and staffed by a very alternative and psychedelic array of professionals , CalArts provides for a collaborative environment for all sorts of artists. Students are free to develop their own work (over which they retain control and copyright) in a workshop atmosphere, as respected members of a community of artists in which authority must is constantly tested and where teaching works through persuasion rather than coercion. Inter cultural exchange among artists helps in practicing and understanding of the art making process in the broadest context possible.

History

CalArts was initially formed through the merger of the Chouinard Art Institute (founded 1921) and the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music (founded 1883). Both of the formerly existing institutions were going through financial difficulties around the same time, and the founder of the Art Institute, Nelbert Chouinard was also becoming fatally ill. It was through the impetus of Walt Disney, who found and trained many of his studio artists at Chouinard (including Mary Blair, Maurice Noble, and some of the Nine Old Men, among others), that was responsible for coordinating the merger of the two institutions, along with his brother Roy and Lulu Von Hagen.

The institute was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the performing arts. The founding board of trustees originally planned on creating CalArts as a school as an entertainment complex, a destination like Disneyland, and a feeder school for the industry. In an ironic turn of fate, they appointed Robert Corrigan and Herbert Blau, two progressive artists, as the president and provost of the newly founded institute. Subsequently, both were instrumental in hiring a number of professionals drawn from the counterculture and avant garde like Mel Powell, Jules Engel, Paul Brach, Alexander Mackendrick, Allan Kaprow, Bella Lewitzky, Michael Asher, John Baldessari, Judy Chicago, Miriam Shapiro, and Douglas Huebler.

The California Institute of the Arts is commonly referred to as CalArts. This college is located in Valencia, California, which is a suburb of Los Angeles, California. CalArts is authorized by the state of California to grant Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in the visual, performing, and literary arts.