Joanna Priestley
Having Jules Engel as a mentor and teacher was a life and career changing experience. Nearly very weekday, for part
CalArts’ 50th Anniversary Weekend celebrates the Institute’s first five decades of artmaking, education, and out-of-the-box thinking. While there are some events dedicated specifically to our alums as part of the Alumnx Reunion (taking place concurrently that weekend), there are plenty of end-of-year events—including the World Music Festival and the Open Studios—that are open to the public. A major highlight of the weekend is the Happenings, a creative endeavor of durational, performative, and immersive projects taking place on Friday and Saturday nights into the wee small hours of the morning.
Join us in what promises to be a fun, creative, and weirdly experiential weekend.
Dear CalArtians and friends, old and new:
Just over a half-century ago, Walt Disney imagined building a school which was a community of artists without walls. His brother Roy, and friends Nelbert Chouinard and Lulu May Von Hagen worked with him to turn that vision into reality.
Instead of separating solely by discipline, CalArts was to be a place where artists would find inspiration in one another, spark new thought and reshape not only the arts and culture but also the world.
This season we honor the lasting accomplishments of that collaborative spirit as we mark the 50th anniversary of the California Institute of the Arts in Valenica. Our cooperative art-making has empowered people around the globe to see their communities, their own potential, and life itself in vital new ways.
CalArtians have indeed changed the world.
Because we always look forward, we celebrate this landmark by recommitting CalArts to the future — to transforming ourselves, one another, and the world with bigger, bolder strokes. Our extraordinary legacy calls on us to define the future together.
Through our Strategic Framework, we’ve set a firm foundation to support this journey. In recognizing where we’ve been, we energize where we’re going.
And so as you cheer and marvel at CalArts, do embrace and decide what comes next. Take the reins and lift up one another. In this moment and for the years to come, it’s the best way to celebrate.
With gratitude,
Ravi S. Rajan
President, California Institute of the Arts
Over the years, various CalArts timelines have been created to capture the Institute’s milestones and memories. We’ve created this one as a special 50th anniversary edition.
Click on the decades below to view CalArts throughout the years.
Stuart Horn (Music MFA 83)
Having Jules Engel as a mentor and teacher was a life and career changing experience. Nearly very weekday, for part
I remember DJing the projection mapped giant Mayan Pyramid the theater school built for the 2012 Halloween party
I remember Obama winning the election while we all were stifled in to a lounge in the undergrad dorms. It
In 1996, when I first arrived at CalArts as a grad student in the Art school, I also decided to
I have fond memories of my years at CalArts–1977-79. The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance deans were amazing: Gus
Follow CalArts on a yearlong journey as we share memories, celebrate milestones and explore the future of CalArts through the eyes of students, faculty, staff and alums. When posting your memories, observations, and predictions, we encourage you to use #CalArts50.