California Institute of the Arts

I graduated in 2008 from the School of Theater with my BFA. Hoping the administration has since evolved to a level that relies less on nepotism and general bad planning.
The classes themselves were rad, though school politics leaked into every facet of my education. Great teachers were given fewer classes and opportunities to direct students, while inexperienced teachers were often given a leg up. The nepotism extended to casting student plays — often MFA directors’ whims were given precedence over student safety.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the experience was the isolation of the school from other schools. I had to form my own connections with the film school, and fight for the space to present student projects.
I took the challenges of the school head-​on, joining the Coffeehouse committee, the New Works committee, and my last year I was the treasurer of student council. But at that level of involvement I found more red tape and buck passing. When my classmates started to get seriously injured by unsafe sets and the administration responded with glazed-​eyed shrugs, there was nobody to talk to outside the circle of theater admins who set up the situations in the first place — and who weren’t beyond punishing «difficult» students with bad casting, or none at all.
All that said, my actual training was solid and has served me in my career. I made a lot of great connections, and still keep in touch with a couple teachers who genuinely care about my progress.
If you do go here, I recommend that you live within walking distance — commuting traffic will make it very difficult for you to get to your first class on time. I lived in both dorm buildings, and wound up staying in an apartment complex down the street for cheaper.
Last thing — if you want to go here and you don’t come from money, be prepared to pull teeth for in-​school scholarships and financial aid. It was also difficult to work a weekend job around classes and rehearsals, especially with an admin unwilling to help. The best financial decision I made there was to stick with federal loans — which has made paying them off so much easier.

For someone coming here for an art show there are no signs. The security is worthless. Two men in their 40s standing outside a guard shack who shrugged and said, «Maybe google where F200 is.» There are no signs anywhere. I get it. It’s an art school but in the real world when you want to sell your art, people need to know where to find it. You spend thousands on this school and someone can’t paint an «F» on the wall. Disney would be pissed.

I am not a student here; but I had the opportunity to tour with one and I really enjoy the vibe of the campus. The basement level is an expression free-​for-​all where you can paint/​draw/​write whatever you’d like on the walls! I just wish I knew that beforehand… Next time I shall be more prepared!
The campus is quite small; but has lots of character. I cannot speak for the classes, cirriculum or campus life except for the fact that it is a fantastic and romantic idea to have as ‘free’ of a campus as this for crafting personal expression.
Kristofer’s Tips of the Day:
Bring art supplies to have fun in the basement… Clothing is optional. Seriously. Also, I hear the Halloween parties are ridiculous.

I have been at CalArts for 3 years now and I am in two different MFA Programs. I have one more semester and I will be graduating with two Masters Degrees from Theater and from Creative Writing. Here is my updated review about this school incase you or someone you know is considering coming here.
THEATER MFA PROGRAM (ACTING):
Is the best int he country, in my humble opinion. It is a three year program. The professors that you have to work with really love their craft and care deeply about their students and making sure you get the most out of your time at the school.
Professors and mentors such as Mirjiana, Rafael, Maureen, Fran Bennett (now retiring), Dwight, Deborah, really take the time in class and also outside of class to offer one on one tutorials and the students really get out what they put in. The quality of the students that are admitted is very high and competitive. One is constantly inspired, and classmates push you come to class prepared and ready to work.
Core classes include Acting Studio, Shakespeare, Voice: Linklater, Roy Hart, Speech: Good Speech for the American Actor, a plethora of productions that are staged throughout the year. There is a Directing class, a Film for the Camera class. And you are continually inspired and challenged to venture beyond your comfort zone.
WRITING MFA:
The School of Critical Studies has a lot of Issues. This is only a 2 year program, and while Theater is possibly the best MFA program in the country, I caution you against the Writing Program (aka Critical Studies) at CalArts. While the Professors such as Janet Sarbanes, Mady Shutzman, Tisa Bryant, Bruce Bauman, Jon Wagner, Doug Kearney are all really fantastic instructors; the program itself requires students to take a series of mandatory courses that are a waste of time that is best spent writing; so while a Novel writing course may be seen as an elective course for students, a class where alumni come in once a week and commiserate about being starving artists is deemed mandatory. The program is so badly designed that last year, 6 of my peers quit halfway through because they felt it was a «waste of their time and money.»
Also, unlike Theater, the students that are admitted into the Writing Program (with some exceptions), are more likely the ones who didn’t get in anywhere else, so while in the Theater Program you are inspired by your peers, in the Writing Program, 8 times out of 10 the work that you will read from the members of your classes is really unfortunate, bad writing.
The ONLY reason I am in the Writing Program at this point, is because I LOVE the Theater program at CalArts and I receive scholarship from both the Theater AND the Writing Schools which makes my expenses and loans a lot lower. So getting a second degree in Writing in CalArts is actually helping me get through school financially, but had I just wanted to go to School for Writing I would have chosen one of the other two schools I was accepted into over this one, in a heartbeat!!!
So if YOU plan to apply to a school just for Writing, I would NOT recommend CalArts at all. It is not prestigious for its writing program as it is for Theater or Film.
I can’tt speak for the Film school though I hear it is fantastic, but I DO recommend taking Nicole Panter’s Screenwriting class. It was a class that changed my life and my skills as a film writer. This class is offered through the FILM school, not through the Writing School. The only Screenwriting class taught through the Writing Program was taught by Mike Cahill and it was offered for ONE semester and discontinued because it was not good. Nicole Panter’s Screenwriting class has been taught at CalArts for over 10 years. I had never written a screenplay or in screenplay format, and after being in this class for the last two years, my screenplay is now a finalist at the Sundance Writer’s Lab.
AMAZING THINGS ABOUT CALARTS IN GENERAL:
— The student body always smiles and is friendly to one another (generally)
— you are constantly inspired because everyone is collaborating, and cross-​pollinating with one another dipping into different art forms.
— the professors are quite phenomenal individuals, mentors and artists in their own right.
— students are constantly being creative, singing in the halls, playing instruments on the lawn, on the grass, in the staircase, acting scenes in the lunchrooms, and coffee shops, art is happening everywhere, all the time.
— the janitors, the Kaffe staff are all friendly and make the campus feel like home.
— overall CalArts is a safe and happy place
— CalArts gives students the opportunity to make the most of their experience. It’s up to the student to take advantage of it or not.
— Student Affairs offers Grants for Projects, Emergency Grants, Food Gift Cards, Lunch Cards for the Caffe, free Popcorn on Wednesdays, Bagels on Thursdays, Free Counseling– overall, a great resource for students.
— Halloween Party, Spring Party and Graduation!
— Dog friendly

What can I say about my beloved alma mater? I am in debt still, 13 years after graduation. I did not get a job in the field I studied (Character Animation). But I would not trade my four years at CalArts for anything. CalArts helped me to grow as an individual, gave me an opportunity to expand my friend base to folks I wouldn’t have otherwise met, but with whom I now share a lifelong bond. It allowed me to meet my amazing husband. It offered me some of the best mentors I could have had, most of whom sadly have passed from this life. And it taught me to tell stories, which to this day I use as I write my novels and UU sermons. So CalArts is most certainly as good as it gets.

I am so thrilled to go to school here. I’ll be graduating with my MFA in about a year and I will never regret a moment of this, even though the administration is somewhat antiquated and signing up for classes is a huge nuisance.
Sometimes I walk into school and an entire jazz or blues ensemble is playing for funskies during lunch time and everyone brings their food and sits and listens. Sometimes I walk into school and people are doing Tai Chi instead and join in if you want. Sometimes you go to the pool and people are skinny dipping like it’s the norm. Sometimes people involve you in their amazing art plans and you end up building amazing stuff. Sometimes everyone opens up their studios and gets a little tipsy and plays barefoot basketball.
If I could hug any institution, it would be this institution.

I’m about to graduate–
And CalArts, you have changed my life!
My perspective, knowledge, and myself as an individual…
I’ve met the most amazing, talented and inspiring friends/​teachers here,
and I appreciate everything that I have learned and obtained as an artist.

i went to calarts.
it’s an interesting place to get an education and there’s something pretty awesome about six distinct schools (art, music, dance, theatre, film/​video, and critical studies) being housed in one giant building. with all of the different disciplines coming together under one roof, a collaborative creative environment like no other is truly fostered– which was walt disney’s intention when he founded the school in the late sixties.
it’s a great place to grow as an artist and it’s also a swell destination for taking in some art, as there are always events going on around the campus and most of them are free and open to the public.

Love this school! Students are amazingly creative and it is providing some of the happiest and most productive years of my musical career!

I’m not a student at CalArts but a spectator of CalArts productions.
CalArts is where I get my arts and entertainment fix. The first event I attended was the North Classical Indian ensembles directed by Aashish Khan in April 2010.
While I never make it to LA for this kind of cultural thing, the CalArts Valencia campus is the best place for such live performances. I can literally walk to the campus ground from my house.
Most events are free. Donations to support this fine school and its highly talented student artists go very long way.

A life-​changing place.

«water needs to flow or it stagnates, i know the cycle from the rain to the great lakes, makes sense without my participation, percipitation faciliates a change in the range on the same page… » –katisse.
music can very much be likened to water. ever flowing, ever evolving with the tides of change. it’s pulse is tuned into pop culture, whether you like it or now. it is a direct reflection of society’s current gains and losses.
it’s amazing to sit back and study the births of certain styles. how swing gave way to hard bop, only to be tempered by the birth of the cool. similarly enough, one can trace the roots of bare tonality to palestrina, moving to bach’s complex fugas, then followed by late ludwig’s constant need to break all the rules. but it didn’t stop there. at some point, composers were brave enough to move away from tonality all together, and ask themselves.
what IS music?
enter schoenberg, and then ultimately john cage. where the piano is approached as a true percussive instrument, via prepared piano. sounds are manipulated, nails are gently inserted. this was the future of music. or is it?
the above mentioned happened in the late 1930’s. where is the revolution of change?
major conservatories and schools have institutionalized music. packaged it. sealed it. condemned it to a museum.
enter cal arts.
this forward thinking musical culture sees cage’s ’ sonatas and interludes’ as a ‘classic’. constantly exploring new genres, while encouraging new talents, this school is a place for the visionaries.
what’s your vision for the future of music?

This rating is purely because of their Sub Level, where it is completely legal to paint all over the walls with exception of a couple rules (posted in the pictures section) along with some of the best graffiti I found down there.
I literally could spend a whole day in the Student Level/​Basement/​Sub Level, wandering the halls, staring at the amazing art. When the school first got started, the students just gravitated down there to paint and do political cartoons because of the war and what was going on at the time. After the Northridge earthquake, the walls got painted over all white because of the damage and also to start anew. There was a huge uproar at the time because there were doodles down there by very famous artists, one of them was Tim Burton (who is alumni).
Anyway, it’s an incredible activity, free of charge. A cheap original date.
The guy wandering the halls plucking a mbira made me happy.

Art, Critical Studies, and Dance majors don’t actually mix unless you are an interschool grant student. Class registration has to be in person instead of online or on the phone at least. I do love how they observe Indigenous People’s Day during Columbus Day. I used to think the colors at the pass were beautiful but I would never go here. I was disappointed in the work at the two art studio areas.
Its in the Valley and I need to be in Los Angeles. My boyfriend’s favorite area is the sub-​level. The campus is pet-​friendly. The women’s restroom has doors with a hole in the working lock or missing toilet paper. There are public readings on the grounds, which makes for a good atmosphere.

I liked it.