IDEAS

CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS (CCA)

an institution on the precipice of...change

By Fia Pitre 

The Coming Utopia

California College of the Art’s legacy in the Bay Area is undeniable. Since the school’s opening in 1907 in response to the European arts and crafts moment of the late 19th century, CCA’s mission has been to educate and support upcoming generations of arts and craftspeople. Supporters of this moment advocated for an integrated approach to art, design, craft, and culture, and the school’s founder Frederick Meyer envisioned a “practical art school” that has grown into an internationally recognized institution today. In 1922, the four-acre James Tredwell estate in Oakland was purchased to house the school, and the formerly California College of Arts and Crafts has remained in Oakland exclusively until recently.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, California gave birth to the Bay Area Figurative movement, where artists strayed from the cultural dominance of Abstract Expressionism to a more figurative approach to painting, and CCA alumni such as Nathan Oliveria and Manuel Neri were leaders of this movement. Alumni Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos in the 1960s helped to establish ceramics as a fine art medium and were closely associated with the American Ceramics Movement. Through the latter half of the 20th century, CCAC hosted a variety of fine artists and craftspeople that went on to have national success, and the school and the Bay Area have continued to grow in economic and cultural importance.

The Past

In 1999 the CCAC underwent a major transitional period and opened the doors to a new campus in San Francisco. Ideally located in the center of the emerging California tech boom the bottom of the rapidly changing and gentrifying Potrero Hill, this move provided room for the creation of new departments and physical space for a growing student body of designers, architects, and computer-based practices. In 2003 the school was renamed California College of the Arts, losing the “craft” in its institutional title. This rebranding of the College’s historical craft-based mission reflects the changing sentiments within the institution towards tech and design and set in motion the seismic shifts being felt throughout the campuses to this very moment.

During challenging times, tensions within institutions begin to show more prominently, and more weight is shifted to foundational figures within departments. This is exemplified by the 3D Fine Arts Department at CCA, currently still located on the Oakland campus, where its legacy and importance are being to slip through the cracks of change. Allison Smith, an Oakland-based artist whose work traverses the mediums of performance, installation, and craft-based sculptures, was hired in 2008 as a professor in the CCA sculpture department, and for ten years she chaired the department. For many years Allison, along with Nathan Lynch, the Chair of Ceramics, Clifford Rainey, the Chair of Glass, and 3D operations manager Craig Petey, were the intellectual, institutional, and cultural support for Fine Arts. They actively advocated for the health of the 3D studios and the success of the artists within their departments. But success breeds new opportunities, and also new challenges.

The "front" of the change

In 2018 Smith was promoted to the Dean of Fine arts, leaving the Sculpture Department for a position primarily located on the San Francisco Campus. Smith played an essential role in the health and advocacy of the Oakland (primarily craft-based) campus. Her promotion away from the Oakland studios marked a critical shift in the supportive structure of the 3D fine Arts departments at CCA, leaving other foundational figures supporting the excess responsibility and weight. Allison continues to champion the Fine Arts Departments from her Dean position, but in a school with a growing interest in design, architecture, and gaming, the legacy of CCA’s fine arts departments may be diminishing in an ever-growing shadow of the future.

In 2020 COVID-19 hit globally. This marked a cataclysmic shift in Arts education and closed the doors of nearly all major academic institutions globally. These closures of campuses and institutions worldwide have prompted a major shift to online learning formats, which have allowed many college students the flexibility and safety to continue their academic path over the course of the pandemic; but within CCA this shift has disproportionately negatively affected students whose practice requires physical studios and facilities. In an emergency, temporary measures are often necessary, but they can also have lasting detrimental effects on the strength of an institution.

Throughout the whole of the pandemic, CCA’s studios remained closed, and many art students were forced to adapt to working in whatever spaces they could find, making use of kitchen tables and shared living spaces. This situation pushed many students to broaden their use of digital production methods such as computer-based modeling programs and animation software; but for some students, this was not an option. No access to studios, kilns, furnaces, and heavy machinery for a substantial period of time has stifled the ability of fine artists to produce their work. The pandemic, coupled with a desire for campus unification has also caused many departments to tighten budgets, leading to fewer professors and staff taking up the excess responsibility. During any major move or time of immigration from one place to another, it is not uncommon for things to get lost, be they artifacts, culture, or people. Now, as CCA begins to reopen its doors, and campus unification is underway, much of the weight of the institution has been shifted to fewer critical figures and available spaces, threatening and the structure stability, and culture of CCA.

This is the future Future

The new student housing and dining area are complete, and CCA’s return to partial in-person classes was celebrated by students, professors, and administrators, yet the campus has lost critical staff and space over the course of the last two years. Lancelot Fraser, the glass operations manager, was the last person to see the glow and roar of the CCA furnace. After bailing out piles of molten glass in March 2020 and closing the doors, he was laid off. Fraser is a CCA Alumni, experienced glassblower, and was the operations manager for all facilities, equipment, and materials related to glass blowing and studio operations on the first floor of Oakland’s Shaklee Building. With Fraser gone, CCA Glass has no champion, and no glass classes have been offered for over a year. There are some listed for spring 2022 and they are tentatively scheduled to be conducted at the Crucible in West Oakland. That’s really what we might call off-campus, which is why it’s so crucial to fill the now empty operations position.

Without a dedicated operations manager, the responsibility and maintenance of all those additional spaces fall to Craige Peete, who is shifting from Ceramics Operations Manager to now having the sole responsibility for all 3D studios on the Oakland Campus. While Nathan Lynch, who previously was the Chair of Ceramics, now holds the position of Chair of Ceramics and Glass; one imagines that the advocacy for the glass department is weakening with Lynch’s and Peete’s increased responsibilities. The main unifying force of the two campuses, the intercampus Shuttle, was also stopped over the course of campus closure, and will only restart on a limited schedule for the final two-campus semester in Spring 2022.

This resulted only after immense pressure and a large petition from the student body. CCA’s San Francisco campus also felt the loss of critical figures and spaces over the course of the closure. Full San Francisco studio access was not restored until November 15th of the Fall 2021 Semester, after students took it upon themselves to petition the school for restored access. But with professors overstretched with larger-than-usual class loads, and a lack of in-studio advocacy, many students are realizing the depths of the impact the pandemic has had on the current structure of the school. These committed administrators and crucial spaces are necessary for the health and safe operation of studios, and the impact of their removal and restructuring of positions has sent shockwaves through the campus, only recently being felt by returning students.

A space for the post-pandemic student

The desire for continued campus unification has prompted the relocation of some departments, such as Sculpture, from the Oakland Campus to a “flux-space” on the San Francisco Campus backlot. Currently, CCA’s sculpture classes are working in open-sided tents with no lights or electricity, which seems problematic given the way winter storms have become colder and more erratic. Backlot access has also been limited from 8 am-6 pm daily, leaving Sculpture Department students no time outside of their scheduled classes to work in a dedicated space. This “flux-space” represents the first of many transitional studios for Fine Arts Majors until the completion of the planned expansion.

Beginning Fall of 2022 the Textiles department will be moved to San Francisco, followed shortly by Jewelry, Metal, and Ceramics. But Campus Unification may not be as simple as simply moving departments across the Bay: the promises of future new studios and bigger facilities for art students are dwindling in the face of a lack of support and, most importantly, advocacy. New rooms do not uphold a department. It is the foundational figures and advocates within departments who safeguard its culture, integrity, and strength moving forward. These figures, and the vitality of the department that they represent, must be guarded and cared for during this time of major transition. If the Oakland departments are not moved to the San Francisco Campus carefully, they will inevitably suffer, and in the long term, the entire institution suffers. Losing the advocacy, strength, and culture of these critical Fine Arts Departments damages the integrity of the institution over a century-long legacy of cultural importance, and this weakens the foundations of the entire institution. Change and evolution are good, but this particular change, the cultural integrity, and the history of CCA must be protected for the sake of the future of the entire institution.

Here I am doing something that may vanish in the future

As expansion continues, the new building permits are filed with the city of San Francisco, and the ground-breaking on the backlot is planned for summer. Permits have been approved for a new four-story building on the backlot, with a $700,000,000 estimated budget, which promises arts students improved shops, studios, and facilities, as well as proposed green spaces, and communal work areas. Meanwhile, departments are left fighting for shrinking available spaces in the current San Francisco building, and a rapidly growing student body has begun voicing concerns over the CCA’s ability to safely guide this institutional change.

The college has made repeated decisions to remove critically foundational advocates from departments right before making major structural changes to the physicality of those departments. This shows a growing pattern of disregard for the voiced concerns of staff, professors, and students within these departments undergoing transition and, if continued, this puts CCA’s historic lineage of craft and fine arts under dire threat. If the history, culture, and foundational figures of these historic departments are not nurtured and protected during the remainder of the campus expansion, the CCA Fine Arts departments will lose students, support, and credibility. Artists perpetuate and create culture, so weakening the culture of the artists at CCA will weaken the integrity and culture of the entire institution.

©Fia Pitre and the CCA Arts Review