California Institute of the Arts

Ranked as America’s top college for students in the arts by Newsweek/The Daily Beast, California Institute of the Arts has set the pace for educating professional artists since 1970.

Led by a renowned faculty, CalArts offers rigorous undergraduate and graduate degree programs through six Schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater. CalArts has continually championed creative excellence, critical reflection, and the development of new forms and expressions.

We are grateful to our corporate partners who make possible the programs and events that support and promote the work of our students, alumni and faculty and connect CalArts to a growing creative community around the globe.

CalArts is a vibrant community of artists dedicated to exploring new forms and expressions in their respective disciplines—and beyond.The campus life is a direct reflection of the CalArts core philosophy: that the act of artmaking is predicated on an openness to collaboration, spontaneity and improvisation. In this vein, CalArts maintains an inclusive environment that fosters the professional and personal growth of each and every one of its students.

While the curriculum at CalArts is unlike any other, the admissions process is similar to other art and design schools.The information on these pages will help guide you through the CalArts admissions process.Begin your search at the Apply section to get an overview of requirements, followed by the Portfolio and Audition information to learn about the specific requirements for each program. Applicants are also encouraged to visit the individual School sites to view student work and learn more about their Program of interest.

CalArts teaches artists to develop the skills and personal drive to reach their creative potential, question received ideas and expand forms of knowledge and experience in the world. CalArts challenges artists to create work that matters globally to the state of culture today and in the future.

California state law vests the authority of management of California Institute of the Arts in the Institute’s Board of Trustees. Working with the Institute’s president and its academic and administrative officers, the Board of Trustees holds fiduciary and overall responsibility for the welfare of CalArts. The Institute’s leadership also consults with the Board of Overseers, a New York-based advisory panel.

CalArts has a long and rich tradition of attracting and welcoming the most talented international students in the world. One out of every five students at CalArts is international, representing nearly 50 different countries. Many of CalArts distinguished faculty are also international, adding to the artistic and academic diversity of our community.The executive order issued on Jan. 25, 2017, by President Donald Trump, which put a temporary ban on entry from seven predominantly Muslim countries, has not changed or diminished CalArts’ commitment to international students.

CalArts houses six separate Schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater—and offers programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels.Undergraduate programs lead to the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree. All but one of the master's programs culminate with the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree, with one program—Aesthetics and Politics—leading to a Master of Arts (MA) degree. The Institute also offers a doctorate—a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)—in its Performer-Composer program through The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts.

CalArts offers a variety of unique programs at the undergraduate and graduate level within its six world-renowned Schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater.

Undergraduate core courses are the foundation of BFA studies at CalArts, providing a strong general education and opportunities to deepen every student's artistic practice.

The CalArts Library enables students and faculty to develop the skills necessary for creative exploration, critical reflection and lifelong learning.Deep into his fabled career, Walt Disney conceived of a new school for nurturing future generations of creative talent: a multidisciplinary “community of the arts” built around the real-life experience of working artists instead of the conventions of the academy. Moreover, the school would remove the walls separating the creative disciplines and encourage artists from different branches to mix and collaborate as a way of sparking new ideas and methods.

Walt and his brother Roy started making this vision a reality in 1961 when they formed California Institute of the Arts through the merger of two existing L.A. schools for art and music.

A decade later, in 1970, the new college, CalArts, opened its doors to offer programs in art, design, film, music, theater and dance. It turned out to be a fiercely countercultural version of Walt’s utopian concept, and yet the Institute immediately became a hotbed of artistic originality.

In the half-century since then, successive generations of innovators from CalArts have set the leading edge of contemporary artistic practice—from conceptualism, feminist art and design, video and computer music in the School’s early years, to the Disney Renaissance, Pixar Revolution and SpongeBob; from interdisciplinary performance and digital design to the latest directions in creative music, interactive media, hybrid arts and immersive experience.

Along the way, the Institute and its alumni have helped fuel the rise of a multifaceted L.A. creative scene that is among the most dynamic in the world, and inspired similarly enterprising artistic communities across East Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Today’s CalArts community—high-achieving, eclectic, globally connected—encompasses a greater breadth and diversity of artmaking than at any point in the Institute’s history. What new forms and expressions will this generation contribute to our culture?