"The very things we value, education, art, culture, are disappearing at a rapid rate,"
"An art school is a very different animal 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."
"These measures have proven to be temporary and not sustainable if we are to serve our community effectively,"
California College of the Arts, the Bay Area's last private art and design school, will close after the 2026–2027 academic year. Vanderbilt University will subsume the college's San Francisco campus under an agreement announced January 13. Declining enrollment and a tuition-dependent financial model prompted cost-cutting measures, including a 10% staff layoff in 2024 and elimination of open roles amid a $20 million deficit. The college received $45 million in donations last February, half from the family foundation of Nvidia CEO Jen‑hsun Huang, but those funds and other measures were judged temporary and insufficient to sustain independent operations. The closure raises concerns about the future of arts and artists in the city.
Read at Hyperallergic
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