As of 2026, ''
U.S. News & World Report's'' most recent rankings place CalArts as the seventh best overall graduate program for fine arts in the United States. In 2020,
U.S. News & World Report ranked CalArts as the fifth best graduate program for fine arts in the United States, tied with the
Rhode Island School of Design and behind the
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture,
School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
Yale School of Art, and
Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. By specialty, CalArts was ranked third in Time-Based Media/New Media and ninth in Painting/Drawing, Photography, and Sculpture. In 2011,
Newsweek/
The Daily Beast listed CalArts as the top school for arts-minded students; the ranking was intended to assess campuses that offer an exceptional artistic atmosphere. CalArts' various schools are consistently featured in the top ten lists of the "best schools" of Art, Film, Animation, Theater, Music, and Dance of publications such as
U.S. News,
New York Times,
The Hollywood Reporter,
Variety, and various other news and trade publications. During the early years of CalArts, the faculty and administration have or have had an affiliation with
Yale University. This includes
Robert Corrigan,
Herbert Blau,
Paul Brach,
Mel Powell,
Peter de Bretteville,
Sheila Levrant de Bretteville,
Yoko Matsuda,
David Schwartz, William Douglas,
Keith Godard,
Craig Hodgetts,
Alan Schoen, and
Allan Vogel. More recently this connection includes
Anoka Faruqee,
Martin Kersels,
Jack Vees,
Libby Van Cleve,
John Hogan, Samuel Messer, Taryn Wolf, and current president
Ravi Rajan.
Animation industry In February 2014,
Vanity Fair magazine highlighted the success of CalArts' 1970s animation alumni and briefly profiled several (including
Jerry Rees,
John Lasseter,
Tim Burton,
John Musker,
Brad Bird,
Gary Trousdale,
Kirk Wise,
Henry Selick and
Nancy Beiman) in an article illustrated with a group portrait taken by photographer
Annie Leibovitz inside classroom
A113. In the late 1980s, a group of CalArts animation students contacted animation director
Ralph Bakshi. As he was in the process of moving to New York, they persuaded him to stay in Los Angeles to continue to produce
adult animation. Bakshi then got the production rights to the cartoon character
Mighty Mouse. By Bakshi's request,
Tom Minton and
John Kricfalusi went to the CalArts campus to recruit the best talent from what was the recent group of graduates. They hired
Jeff Pidgeon,
Rich Moore,
Carole Holliday,
Andrew Stanton and Nate Kanfer to work on the then-new
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures television series. In a 2002 interview, Craig "Spike" Decker of
Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation criticized commercial aspects of the school, saying "A lot of animators come out of CalArts – they could be so prolific, but then they're owned by Disney or someone, and they're painting the fins on
The Little Mermaid. You'll never see their full potential."
Art During the formative years of the art school, many of the teaching artists led different camps of movements. The two main camps were the
conceptualism students, which were led by
John Baldessari, and the
fluxus camp, which was led by
Allan Kaprow. Kaprow's approach to art was a continuation from his
tenure at Rutgers University. Other movements included
Light and Space, which was closely related to the artists associated with the
Ferus Gallery in the greater Los Angeles area. In 1972, CalArts hosted an exhibition called
The Last Plastics Show, which was organized by artists
Judy Chicago, Doug Edge, and
Dewain Valentine. This exhibition included artists such as,
Carole Caroompas,
Ron Cooper,
Ronald Davis,
Fred Eversley,
Craig Kauffman,
Linda Levi,
Ed Moses,
Barbara T. Smith, and
Vasa Mihich. In the autobiography
Bad Boy: My Life On and Off the Canvas by CalArts alum
Eric Fischl, he describes his experience as a student as follows: "CalArts had such a narrow idea of the New. It was innovation for its own sake, a future that didn't include the past. But without foundation, without techniques or a deeper understanding of history, you'd go off these wild explorations and end up reinventing the wheel. And then you'd get slammed for it." Art critic
Dave Hickey critiqued the art program of CalArts by suggesting that the variety of reference that students are exposed to is limited to a certain pantheon. He stated "I can go over to CalArts and ask them if they know who
John Wesly is, and they would go, 'Huh? What discourse does he participate in?' I am in the art world only insofar as there are interesting things for me to write about. When that stops, or when I stop getting offers to write things, I'll be out." Additionally, Hickey mentioned the use of appropriation by students at programs like CalArts. In this, he referenced the
VH1 show
Pop-Up Video, by which he stated "Creators
Tad Low and Woody Thompson should receive honorary MFAs for [Pop Up Video], because grad students worldwide are getting diplomas for just this sort of thing -- stealing (or as they say in art school, "appropriating") hackneyed pop images and scribbling on top of them à la granddaddy
Marcel." In the
LA Weekly op-ed piece "The Kids Aren't All Right: Is over-education killing young artists?", published in 2005, curator
Aaron Rose wrote about an observed trend he recognized in Los Angeles's most esteemed art schools and their MFA programs, including CalArts. He uses the example of Supersonic, "a large exhibition ... that features the work of MFA students from esteemed area programs like CalArts, Art Center, UCLA, etc." In his observation of the showcase, he says "... the work left me mostly empty and with a few exceptions seemed like nothing more than a rehash of conceptual ideas that were mined years ago." He went on to state that "these institutions are staffed with amazing talents (
Mike Kelley and John Baldessari among them). Legions of creative young people flock to our city [Los Angeles] every year to work alongside their heroes and develop their talents with hopes of making it as an artist." He goes on to further state "What happens too often in these situations, though, is that we find young artists simply emulating their instructors, rather than finding and honing their own aesthetics and points of view about the world, society, themselves. In the beginnings of an artist's career, the power in his or her work should lie not in their technique or knowledge of art history or theory or business acumen, but in what one has to say." Musician and CalArts alumnus
Ariel Pink notes in an interview "Unlike other art schools, they didn't focus on skills of any kind, specific
color theory or anything like that. They were the only art school that was totally focused on teaching artists about the art market. They were trying to make the next
Damien Hirst. They're trying to make the next
Jeff Koons. Those guys don't need to know how to paint or draw."
Music In 1978, the first Contemporary Music Festival initiated the annual series, which positioned CalArts on the international map of avant-garde music. Music by composers such as
John Cage,
Paul Dresher,
Morton Feldman,
Milton Babbitt, and
Lou Harrison, among others, was played at the first edition of the festival. CalArts graduates have joined or started successful pop bands, including
Maryama,
Tranquility Bass,
The Belle Brigade,
The Weirdos,
The Swords of Fatima /
Buko Pan Guerra,
Bedroom Walls,
Dawn of Midi,
Dirtwire,
The Rippingtons,
Fitz and the Tantrums,
Fol Chen,
London After Midnight,
No Doubt,
Mission of Burma,
Radio Vago,
Oingo Boingo,
Acetone,
Liars,
Suburban Lawns,
The Mae Shi,
The Suburbs,
Touché Amoré, and
Ozomatli.
Danny Elfman and
Grant-Lee Phillips never officially enrolled at CalArts, but participated in the school's world music courses. Elfman would later gain recognition for his composition work with CalArts alum Tim Burton, and Phillips would go onto a career in music. Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, members of the band
Sonic Youth, made remarks in an interview with VH1 about the band
Liars, of which the members Angus Andrew and Julian Gross are CalArts alumni. Moore's initial remarks were: "There's this whole world of young people who [think] everything's allowed. What Liars are doing right now is completely crazy. I saw them the other night and it was really great. It's really out-there". Gordon then stated "I'm not so crazy about the way [the Liars' They Were Wrong, So We Drowned] sounds. It's like 'how lo-fi can we make it?' But I think the content is really good". In reference to CalArts and Gordon's statement, Moore commented: "They're art kids. They came out of CalArts and that's the kind of sensibility you have when you come out of these sort of places." In a 2005 interview, Moore discussed the book
Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia and his conversation with Gordon after reading the book. During their conversation, Moore asked Gordon why she had chosen to attend
Otis College of Art and Design instead of CalArts, a school she had always wanted to attend since she grew up in Los Angeles. Gordon explained that she was unable to afford CalArts' high tuition. Moore went on to emphasize that the book did not mention the economic feasibility of attending CalArts and that this financial barrier can create a division between those who can afford highly regarded academic art education and those who pursue DIY art.
Theater In his book,
Survival of the Richest, media theorist and MFA directing program graduate
Douglas Rushkoff described his time while a theater student at CalArts. He saw CalArts as an institution that offered numerous opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration; however, despite the creative atmosphere, the theater school was rooted in tradition, adhering to the classical approach to drama with a focus on crisis, climax, and resolution. Rushkoff, influenced by the experimental theater of the 1970s and 1980s (i.e.
Happenings,
Fluxus), had a different perspective on theater. Rushkoff believed in blurring the line between performer and audience, and questioned the traditional theater model, which he viewed as imposing a sense of inevitability and confirming established order. He saw this as cultural propaganda, creating problems in the first act and solving them in the last. In addition to his dissatisfaction with the traditional theater model, Rushkoff was troubled by the high cost of theater productions. After attending a performance of
Bertolt Brecht's
The Threepenny Opera at the
Ahmanson Theatre in 1989 and noticing the high cost of the least expensive ticket, he decided to leave the theater behind in favor of the Internet. He believed that interactivity and digital platforms, such as the Web and hypertext stories, would provide users with multiple pathways and the freedom to choose their own adventures. Even in video games with clear-cut goals (i.e.
Super Mario,
World of Warcraft), players could derive satisfaction from exploring the game world rather than focusing solely on achieving the official story objectives. == "CalArts style" animation ==