The Tamesis
California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco is in financial trouble and will close in 2027. Founded in Berkeley in 1907, the college is selling its campus to Vanderbilt University. CCA is the city’s only nonprofit independent arts school.
“I am writing to share with you an important update regarding the future of CalArts: To support our students’ opportunities to complete their studies and to respect CCA’s important role in the Bay Area’s creative ecosystem, we have reached an agreement with Vanderbilt University,” the school’s president, David Howse, said in an announcement on his website.
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“Under this agreement, CCA will wind down its current operations and close by the end of the 2026-2027 academic year. Vanderbilt will then become the owner of the campus and will establish undergraduate and graduate programs on campus, including art and design programs. Vanderbilt also plans to operate a CCA college at Vanderbilt, including the Wattis School of Contemporary Art, etc., which will maintain CCA archival materials and will serve as a vehicle for CCA. Through these activities, Vanderbilt University will fulfill CCA ’s long-term creative mission and maintain a strong presence in art and design education in the Bay Area.
Howse went on to say the school would continue teaching through the end of the 2026-27 academic year, allowing some students to complete their degrees, adding that the school would provide “transfer and completion pathways” for younger students at other accredited institutions.
“As enrollment declines, CCA’s tuition-led business model is unsustainable,” Howse’s statement said. “Demographic changes and persistent structural deficits continue to pose significant burdens on our ability to maintain current programs or develop new ones.”
The school got a reprieve in March 2025 when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s foundation donated $22.5 million to the school, equivalent to the same amount raised by more than 50 donors. The gift enables the school to “plan more effectively for the future.”
The school has been facing a serious financial crisis for a long time. 2024, san francisco chronicle Reports say the school faces a $20 million budget deficit due to a sharp decline in student enrollment.
The city also lost another century-old school, the San Francisco Art Institute, founded in 1871, which filed for bankruptcy in 2023. It was the first art school in the United States west of the Mississippi River.
CCA and SFAI are the latest art schools to close. In 2024, the 150-year-old University of the Arts in Philadelphia will close with 7 days’ notice. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has suspended all degree-granting programs. In 2023, the for-profit college system Arts College announced the closure of eight campuses across the country.
