California College of the Arts (CCA), the last standing private art and design institution in the San Francisco Bay Area, will cease operations after the 2026-2027 academic term due to dwindling enrollment. As announced on Tuesday, January 13, Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University will take over the CCA’s San Francisco campus once the college closes.
Natasha Boas, a curator instrumental in founding CCA’s Curatorial Practice Master’s program and a former faculty member from 2000 to 2010, expressed her dismay to Hyperallergic, calling the development “another massive shock in a series of cultural shocks” to San Francisco. Boas lamented, “Education, art, and culture are disappearing at a rapid rate. An art school is very different from a university. Vanderbilt is totally off-brand. What is San Francisco doing to keep their artists in the city? A city without artists is a true dystopia.”
The announcement follows a challenging period for CCA, which included a 10% staff reduction in 2024 amid a $20 million deficit, despite receiving $45 million in donations last February. Half of this funding came from the family foundation of Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. However, CCA President Howse noted that the college’s reliance on a “tuition-driven business model” was unsustainable for its independence.
Vanderbilt University plans to establish an academic facility for around 1,000 students, miles away from its Nashville base. This new venture will include the creation of a CCA Institute at Vanderbilt, incorporating CCA’s research center, the Wattis Institute of Contemporary Arts. The institutions have not disclosed details about whether existing CCA staff will be part of the transition or which programs might be retained.
This development mirrors the 2022 closure of the San Francisco Art Institute, which succumbed to pandemic pressures, debt, and a failed merger. Laurene Powell Jobs now owns the space, with her nonprofit planning an experimental studio program, the California Academy of Studio Arts. Similarly, Northeastern University’s merger with Mills College, a financially troubled women’s college in Oakland, took place in 2022. Current CCA students can complete their degrees, though those needing additional time must transfer. “I taught at both SFAI and CCA over the decades,” Boas reflected. “Losing both venerable art schools in such a short span is devastating.”
