ALUMNI
Created by the marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, who was also a 1993 Experimental Animation alumnus and former Wasserman scholar, this animated, underwater TV show is the highest rated series to ever air on Nickelodeon.
What is SpongeBob SquarePants?
Founded in 1990, this program’s first partners were Plaza de la Raza in East Los Angeles and the Watts Towers Arts Center. Now offering dozens of free programs to youth between the ages of 6 and 18, this program links CalArts with underserved communities all across Los Angeles County.
What is the Community Arts Partnership (CAP) program?
This legendary bassist was one of the founders of the Jazz Program at CalArts, where he taught for 32 years. In October 2015, this former faculty member was honored in a concert in the Wild Beast. An endowed scholarship for jazz students has been established in his honor.
Who is Charlie Haden?
This 1994 natural disaster caused $15 million in damage to the CalArts campus.
What is the Northridge earthquake?
This is the nickname given to the School of Theater alumnus who starred in Knight Rider and Baywatch. Though his popularity in the US waxed and waned from the 1970s onward, it firmly endured in Germany.
What is “The Hoff?”
From 1986-1990, a School of Theater alumnus starred in his own Emmy-winning Saturday morning TV show that also featured actors Laurence Fishburne and Phil Hartman. This “children’s” TV show spawned three movies and remains a cult classic today, in spite of an unsavory scandal in 1991.
From 1986-1990, a School of Theater alumnus starred in his own Emmy-winning Saturday morning TV show that also featured actors Laurence Fishburne and Phil Hartman. This “children’s” TV show spawned three movies and remains a cult classic today, in spite of an unsavory scandal in 1991.
When construction on the Walt Disney Concert Hall began in 1992, REDCAT was not part of the plans. It was not until Roy E. Disney, son of Roy O. and Edna Disney, saw the opportunity to incorporate a CalArts presence into the Concert Hall complex that the Walt Disney Company made a gift to support the alterations, which Roy E. Disney and his wife Patty personally matched. Now tasked with the challenge of designing a new theater and gallery space to be dedicated to Roy and Edna Disney and to reflect the CalArts ethos, this lead architect, who had two of his own children graduate from CalArts, knew exactly what to do.
Who is Frank Gehry?
This Dean, who originally hails from Scotland, currently holds the Jill and Peter Kraus Distinguished Chair in Art.
Who is Tom Lawson?
In 1961, Walt Disney and his brother, Roy O. Disney, merged these two schools to create CalArts.
What are the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute?
As president of the Alumni Association, 1973 School of Theater alumnus Paul Reubens would stage wild reunions and hand out these to attendees.
What are joints?
Since 1990, CalArts jazz music students have had the rare opportunity to record their original compositions at the legendary Capitol Studios with the best recording engineers in the world. These annual recordings form the CalArts Jazz CD project, which is available to stream online and is distributed to jazz reviewers, radio stations, and music conferences across the country. One of the first musicians to record in this project is this 1990 School of Music alumnus, the son of saxophonist John Coltrane and jazz pianist Alice Coltrane. He was named after the internationally influential and virtuosic Indian sitar player.
Who is Ravi Coltrane?
Involving all of CalArts’ six schools, this annual spring event showcases projects that integrate cutting-edge engineering and computer science with visual and performing arts. When in-person, this event takes place in over 12 venues on CalArt’s campus, including the ROD Concert Hall, MOD Theater, Main Gallery, Wild Beast, Machine Lab, Bijou, and Lund Dance Theater.
What is the Digital Arts Expo?
After a career in feature film producing, including acting as Senior Vice-President of Production for Miramax Film, this former faculty member held tenure at CalArts as the dean of the School of Theater from 1995 to 2016.
Who is Susan Solt?
It was REDCAT Council member Abby Sher, the lead donor for this building on campus, who wanted to pay tribute to major American composer Morton Feldman, who was a composer-in-residence at CalArts in 1986, by referencing his quote. The name of this building does just that.
What is the Wild Beast? “I am interested in how the wild beast lives in the jungle, not the zoo.”
Clothing-optional activities abound at CalArts. One annual event where one should expect to spot a naked CalArtian (or a few) is this.
What is graduation?
To date, the box office revenue of films directed by alumni of CalArts’ animation programs (1984-2021) is an astonishing $50 billion. This 2013 animated film based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Snow Queen, and directed by a CalArts Character Animation alumnus ranked as the highest-grossing animated film of all time with a box office revenue of $1.3 billion until it's sequel was released in 2019 with a box office revenue of $1.45 billion.
What is Frozen?
Since its inception in 1994, this award, which recognizes five risk-taking mid-career artists with a prize of $75,000 each, has been administered by CalArts. The administration of this award is one of many manifestations of CalArts’ longstanding relationship with the eponymous foundation that grants this award.
What is the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts?
Upon moving to Los Angeles, this long-time dance faculty performed in a variety of TV shows, including Cheers, Baryshnikov in Hollywood, and Moonlighting. At CalArts, where he has taught since 1980, this faculty member teaches ballet and contemporary dance technique and is currently the Assistant Dean of the School of Dance.
Who is Laurence Blake?
CalArts’ original planned location was not in Valencia; it was near this Los Angeles landmark famous for summer concerts.
What is The Hollywood Bowl?
One of the more unusual campus pets, this pink and rotund little creature accompanied a student to class for a year.
What is a potbellied pig?
After earning his MFA from the School of Dance in 1991, this French-born choreographer founded Diavolo Dance Theater, one of the most successful dance companies based on Los Angeles that blends modern dance, acrobatics and gymnastics. In 2016, CalArts’ School of Dance was given a Summer Study Award named for this choreographer.
Who is Jacques Heim?
Students around the world have the opportunity to experience – for free – CalArts’ excellence in the arts through massive open online courses (MOOCs) thanks to CalArts’ 2012 partnership with this online education platform that develops large-scale, open access learning via the web.
What is Coursera?
This School of Theater faculty member was one of six artists to receive the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award, an unrestricted grant of $225,000, for her work as a visual/theater artist and experimental filmmaker whose work integrates puppets, film/video and performing objects. She previously headed the Cotsen Center for Puppetry and the Arts in the School of Theater, which closed in 2013, and is a co-founder of the non-profit organization Automata, located in Chinatown.
Who is Janie Geiser?
With a three endowed scholarships named in his honor, this founding faculty member in the Experimental Animation Program was a major influence on students such as Tim Burton, John Lasseter, and Henry Selick. Before coming to CalArts in 1970, where he taught until his death in 2003, this animation artist worked on Disney movies Fantasia and Bambi.
Who is Jules Engel?
This group of ambitious alumni from the School of Art, including Jack Goldstein and James Welling, moved to New York in the early 1970s and became linked with the "Pictures" artists group. Along with other members David Salle, Matt Mulligan, and Cindy Sherman, this group of artists became known by this nefarious nickname.
What is the CalArts Mafia?