2013-2015 aRT Critical studies dAnCe Film/Video MUsiC Theater
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From the first CalArts prospectus, issued in 1968. Original calligraphy by Christian Hedberg ihm and David Mekelburg.
Schools & Programs
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Degrees
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Student Services
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School of Art
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School of Critical Studies
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The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance
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School of Film/Video
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The Herb Alpert School of Music
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School of Theater
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CAP/CNP/REDCAT
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Apply to CalArts
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Accreditation
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Ranked as America’s top college for students in the arts by Newsweek/The Daily Beast, California Institute of the Arts has been an internationally recognized pacesetter in educating professional artists since 1970. Offering rigorous programs in the visual, performing, media and literary arts, our six schools house an exceptional creative community—and deliver an educational experience unlike any other. CalArts students make art around the clock in a fastpaced, forward-looking environment with the guidance of a faculty of professional artists and thinkers who are each at the leading edge of their respective fields. Our mission is to nurture artists whose work matters to the state of culture today, and who have the skills and drive to launch effective careers—creative careers that can help shape the life of our local, national and global communities. As first envisioned by Walt Disney, our founding concept was to bring different art forms together and allow them to cross-pollinate, to inform and inspire each other, side by side. The goal of this process has always been to elevate creativity, encourage new col laborations, and spark artistic innovation. We stand by this vision now more than ever. The artistry being carried out at CalArts encompasses an exhilaratingly diverse range of practices and cultures as our students expand the time-tested forms of each discipline— and go on to chart altogether new pathways. The CalArts educational philosophy is based on close collegial interaction between teachers and students— in class, in production and in one-to-one mentoring. This approach combines rigorous instruction with individualized attention, geared to encourage students to define their own personal objectives, and then develop and refine their distinctive artistic voices. Given more creative freedom than at liberal arts colleges or traditional art schools and conservatories, our students —who are admitted primarily based on their artistic abilities—are uncommonly self-motivated and fiercely committed to producing art, design, dance, film, music, theater, writing, and any number of hybrid forms. They are here because their work is what they love to do every day, beginning on day one of school.
During the economic crisis of the last years, we at CalArts have carefully managed our resources so that we can always best serve our students. We recognize the significant commitment a CalArts education represents for students and their families, and we are equally committed to ensuring the quality of this education. We have kept our faculty intact and expanded academic offerings to stay abreast of emerging practices. Importantly, we have continued to increase student financial aid, and are seeking every professional opportunity for graduating students to begin productive careers after school. CalArts is now more deeply connected than ever before with professional creative communities at the national and international levels—thanks to our acclaimed ensembles, productions, exhibitions and publications, our global roster of visiting artists, our ongoing partnerships with schools and arts institutions abroad, and adventurous programs presented at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (redcat) in downtown Los Angeles. Our students also regularly take part in festivals, conferences and exchanges around the world, building important professional relationships with their international counterparts. Closer to home, the nationally emulated Community Arts Partnership (cap), an alliance between CalArts and scores of community groups and public schools, delivers arts education programs to underserved Los Angeles youth while at the same time providing our student instructors with valuable teaching experience and a source of income. CalArts today is making one of the most thorough going attempts of any arts college to place the education of artists in a mutually strengthening ecology that links campus, community and the broader world. We are striving toward a new synthesis of student and professional, learning and creating, local and global, as our graduates continue to make and remake the very future of the arts. Steven D. Lavine President, California Institute of the Arts Dr. Lavine has been president of CalArts since 1988. He serves on the boards of Idyllwild Arts Foundation, the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (snaap), and the Villa Aurora Foundation for European–American Relations, and advises other arts and education groups. He has co-edited, with Ivan Karp, two collections on the poetics and politics of public culture.
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HISTORY AND CAMPUS
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California Institute of the Arts was established by Walt E. and Roy O. Disney through the merger of two professional schools: the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, founded in 1883, and the Chouinard Art Institute, founded in 1921. The Disney brothers were joined by Lulu May Von Hagen, chair of the conservatory, in this effort. In 1970, CalArts first opened its doors at an interim campus in Burbank before moving to its permanent campus in Valencia, 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, in 1971. Today, in addition to providing degree programs through six schools— Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater—CalArts further extends its commitment to the arts through the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (redcat) in downtown L.A. and the awardwinning Community Arts Partnership (cap) youth arts education program. The Valencia campus occupies 60 acres on hills overlooking the Santa Clarita Valley. At the center of campus is the five-level, 500,000-square-foot Main Building, where different arts share space under one roof. Spread on sloping hillsides around this complex are the Wild Beast music pavilion, two residence halls, and several other buildings containing studios and various production and performance spaces. Students have 24/7 access to studios, shops, labs, editing suites, and other production facilities throughout the academic year. Outdoor recreational features include a swimming pool and tennis and basketball courts, while open fields and ample lawns dotted with shade trees allow for quiet reading and casual sports. Farther afield, beyond the local vicinity, lie the enormous cultural, professional and entertainment resources of Los Angeles—the secondlargest metropolitan region in the United States, home to one of the most diverse populations in the world, and a global hub of arts and media.
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PROVOST Jeannene M. Przyblyski The education we offer at CalArts is an invitation to join a rare community of working artists, writers and critical thinkers. Our primary emphasis is to help students develop their own unique strengths and visions as individuals; and yet we also challenge them to develop the knowledge, skill and versatility to work with colleagues—to create collaboratively and across conventional disciplines. In some métiers, the need for collaboration is obvious: conducting an orchestra or directing a narrative film requires the energies of many others. But even in solitary pursuits— the painter alone in her studio, the novelist alone in his study—we recognize artists as agents of change on multiple fronts, culturally, socially and politically. Through rigorous programs combining investigation and critique, we work with our students to enable them to have an impact on our communities through their art—and to apply the power of creative thinking in unexpected ways to address problems of the world. Social innovation is creative innovation: it is the result of people who dare to think beyond what they already know—and who strive for what they can only speculate may be true. In a new student-initiated feature of campus life, “Institute Commons,” we are setting aside blocks of creative free time during which students from across the Institute meet, brainstorm and experiment together, begin joint projects, and develop work outside the curricula. Institute Commons complements the already full slate of activities at school—in the classroom, in the studios and shops, in performance, in production, or teaching in the Community Arts Partnership youth arts education program. Our students are in a position to capitalize on a truly enviable range of artistic resources in order to prepare for professional lives in the arts. As they define their own successes as they go, they will also remain, for the rest of their lives, part of a network of CalArtians that now spans the globe, continuing to open uncharted territories. Dr. Przyblyski was appointed provost of CalArts in 2012. She was previously vice president and dean of academic affairs of the San Francisco Art Institute, and served on numerous Bay Area arts boards and commissions. A visual artist and art historian, she has long championed the arts as a means for civic engagement.
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CaLaRTS STUDENT POPULATION* Total enrollment: 63.3%
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1441 students
Undergraduate (bfa, certificate)
36.7%
Graduate (mfa, ma, dma,
52.5% 47.5%
Female Male
advanced certificate)
Geographic & national representation United States: 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands International: 44 countries U.S. students: 87.8% 0.6% 10.6% 7.1% 59.7% 0.2% 10.8% 7.1% 3.9%
American Indian/Alaskan Asian Black Caucasian Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Latino Two or more races Other/undeclared International students: 12.2%
28% 91%
Acceptance rate Retention rate
areas of Study (métiers)
21.3% 3.4% 6.0% 26.7% 19.6% 23.0%
School of Art School of Critical Studies The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance School of Film/Video The Herb Alpert School of Music School of Theater *Fall semester, 2011–12 academic year
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SCHOOLS and programs CalArts welcomes applications to the following programs:
School of art Thomas Lawson, Dean Program in Art (bfa, mfa) Program in Graphic Design (bfa, mfa) with a Specialization available in: — Motion Graphics (mfa level only) Program in Photography and Media (bfa, mfa)
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Program in Art and Technology (mfa only)
School of The Herb alpert Critical Studies School of Music Amanda Beech, Dean
David Rosenboom, Dean
Writing Program (mfa only)
Performer-Composer Program (third- and fourth-year bfa, mfa, dma)
Aesthetics and Politics Program (ma only)
Composition Program (bfa, mfa) with a Specialization available in: — Experimental Sound Practices (mfa level only)
The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance
Programs in Performance:
Stephan Koplowitz, Dean
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Winds Program (bfa, mfa)
Program in Dance (bfa only)
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Brass Program (bfa, mfa)
Program in Choreography (mfa only)
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Percussion Program (bfa, mfa)
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Guitar Program (bfa, mfa)
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Harp Program (bfa, mfa)
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Piano/Keyboard Program (bfa, mfa) with a Specialization available in: — Collaborative Keyboard (mfa level only)
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Strings Program (bfa, mfa)
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Voice Program (bfa, mfa)
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African Music and Dance Program (mfa only)
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Balinese and Javanese Music and Dance Program (mfa only)
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North Indian Music Program (mfa only)
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World Music Program (bfa only)
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World Percussion Program (mfa only)
The bfa Program in Dance encompasses performance, choreography and dance production. The mfa Program in Choreography also incorporates dance pedagogy.
School of Film/Video
Jazz Program (bfa, mfa)
Steve Anker, Dean Program in Film and Video (bfa, mfa) CALARTS ANIMATION: •
Program in Experimental Animation (bfa, mfa)
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Program in Character Animation (bfa only)
Film Directing Program (mfa only)
Program in Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence and Design (bfa, mfa) Musical Arts Program (bfa only)
DEGREES School of Theater Travis Preston, Dean Programs in Performance: •
Acting Program (bfa, mfa)
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Directing Program (mfa only)
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Writing for Performance Program (mfa only)
Programs in Design and Production: •
Scene Design Program (bfa, mfa) with Specializations available in: — Scene Painting (mfa level only) — V ideo for Performance (mfa level only)
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Costume Design Program (bfa, mfa)
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Lighting Design Program (bfa, mfa)
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Sound Design Program (bfa, mfa)
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Technical Direction Program (bfa, mfa)
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Management Program (bfa, mfa) with Specializations available in: —Producing (mfa level only) —Production Management (mfa level only) —Stage Management (bfa, mfa levels)
First-year bfa applicants interested in any one of the Design and Production areas of study are required to apply to the overall Programs in Design and Production rather than to an individual program. After completing one year of general foundation studies, students may then concentrate their work in one or more individual programs beginning in the second year. bfa transfer and mfa applicants are asked to choose an individual program when applying to CalArts.
CalArts offers degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Undergraduate programs lead to the Bachelor of Fine Arts (bfa) degree. All but two of the graduate programs culminate with the Master of Fine Arts (mfa) degree. The other two programs lead to a Master of Arts (ma) degree and a Doctor of Musical Arts (dma) degree, respectively.
bfa programs take four years, or eight semesters, to complete. To obtain the bfa degree, candidates need to complete the course requirements of their individual programs, as well as the Critical Studies Undergraduate Requirements (see page 13). bfa candidates must also pass faculty reviews of their creative work and, in the case of some programs, carry out a final project.
mfa programs take either two or three years to complete, depending on the individual program. mfa candidates must fulfill all program requirements and pass at least two faculty reviews—once at mid-residency and again before graduation. They are further required to present a thesis project of professional quality.
The Ma aesthetics and Politics Program takes only one year to complete. In addition to meeting course requirements, ma candidates must write a graduate thesis.
The DMa Performer-Composer Program is an intensive, though individualized, three-year course of study that concludes with the completion of a doctoral project
Interschool degrees, similar to double majors, are available by application to advanced third- and fourth-year undergraduates and graduate students whose skills, previous training, and artistic interests warrant pursuing a degree in more than one school at CalArts. In addition, most mfa programs offer a supplemental Concentration in Integrated Media, via the institute-wide Center for Integrated Media (cim), for advanced students whose work involves interdisciplinary practices, participatory media, and interactive technologies. CalArts also awards a small number of undergraduate Certificate of Fine Arts and graduate-level Advanced Certificate of Fine Arts degrees.
To learn more about each CalArts degree program, its curriculum, and its educational and creative objectives, see calarts.edu/programs Current course listings are available at courses.calarts.edu To apply to any of the programs offered by CalArts, go to calarts.edu/apply All application, portfolio and audition instructions are listed on the CalArts application web page.
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Dance icon Anna Halprin (left) visited campus for master classes during the recreation of her landmark parades & changes at the Roy and Edna Disney/ CalArts Theater (redcat). Here Halprin leads students in a “Planetary Dance.�
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Critical Studies Undergraduate Requirements All CalArts undergraduates pursuing the bfa degree are required to complete a range of liberal arts courses during their four-year residencies. Provided through the School of Critical Studies, this institute-wide curriculum ensures that bfa graduates have the broad knowledge and core intellectual, analytical and communications skills needed today for careers in the arts. bfa candidates take two or three Critical Studies classes per semester, amounting to about 40 percent of their overall course loads. A portion of the Critical Studies Undergraduate Requirements is fulfilled by courses covering the history and theory of each student’s chosen artistic métier. bfa students also have the option of obtaining a Minor in Critical Studies by concentrating their coursework in one of five areas: Humanities, Social Sciences, Cultural Studies, Science and Math, or Creative Writing. calarts.edu/undergraduate
Mentoring And academic advising Close working relationships between faculty and students are central to the learning experience at CalArts, made possible by small classes and low student-faculty ratios. Every student works individually with a mentor, a faculty member who serves as that student’s main artistic advisor. This creative guidance is complemented at the undergraduate level by an academic advisor, who is available to assist in managing the requirements of the student’s degree program. Advising also includes the CalArts First-Year Experience, a series of activities, events and workshops designed to introduce incoming bfa students to the ideas and values that underpin the life of the CalArts community, and individual tutoring and other academic support services provided through the Teaching and Learning Center.
STUDENT SERVICES
On-Campus Housing Chouinard Hall houses approximately 340 students in double- and triple occupancy dormitory rooms and is available to students in all year levels. Each room is furnished with twin beds, desks, chairs, dressers and a closet. There is a shared bathroom for every two rooms. Cooking pantries are located on each floor. Ahmanson Hall features 17 suites housing a total of 99 students. It is available to graduate students, third- and fourth-year undergraduates, and students over the age of 30. Each suite features five or six private bedrooms, a common living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Students who wish to live on campus should contact the Housing Office immediately after being accepted by CalArts. calarts.edu/housing | oncampushousing@calarts.edu
Food Services All first-year undergraduates living on campus are required to enroll in a meal plan with the Café@CalArts, the Institute’s primary food service provider. CalArts also has a coffee shop located in the Donn B. Tatum Lounge and a student-run café, Mom’s, in Chouinard Hall.
Health Services A registered nurse is available on campus on weekdays to give first aid for minor injuries, perform some diagnostic tests, and advise students who need more specialized care. All other medical matters are referred to appropriate physicians. Students are required to purchase basic medical insurance through CalArts for a minimal fee, which is added to tuition. Students who are already covered by an existing policy can waive this insurance. calarts.edu/health
Office of Student affairs The wide range of services provided by this office include career services, housing referrals, peer tutoring, counseling, and support for student organizations and special events. The office also assists students with disabilities and addresses issues pertaining to the rights and responsibilities of students. Another key function is to help students with transitions, from acclimating to life on campus to preparing for careers after school. calarts.edu/studentaffairs
Library The Division of Library and Information Resources provides an array of collections, programs, services and study spaces to support and encourage artistic expression and learning. The division manages the CalArts Library and the Bijou Theater, the Institute’s main screening venue. The Library is both a physical and virtual space for studying, socializing, collaborating, and creating. It serves as a natural center for academic support on campus, and Library faculty provide intellectual content, information technology, and the one-on-one assistance to enhance our users’ educational experience, and to help develop the skills necessary for lifelong learning, creative exploration, and critical reflection. The Library’s holdings include unique collections of books, films, videos, exhibition catalogues, music scores, sound recordings, scholarly and trade periodicals, electronic journals, photographic slides, digital images, and computer software. calarts.edu/library
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C a. A display from The Expanding Archive, a sitebased project by designers Scott Barry and Neil Doshi that was carried out at the pact Zollverein arts center in Essen, Germany. Using the exhibition space as a temporary studio, the designers used CalArts archival materials to reflect on the evolving role of design as an active mediator of culture. b. Students wearing stone masks in a performance by MĂŠlodie Mousset.
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c. Sarah Young in a silkscreening workshop offered as part of the School of Art’s Practicum Session. Taking place for three weeks at the start of each spring semester, the Practicum consists of intensive skills-based and themeoriented workshops designed mainly for undergraduates.
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School of
Dean’s Introduction — Thomas Lawson
As a sanctuary for experimentation and cross-disciplinary artmaking, the School of Art provides a forum in which to set forth new ideas in art and an intellectual framework in which to understand such work.
This commitment to artistic innovation and critical reflection has been the key to our enviable success in training the practitioners who go on to make important contributions to their respective fields. Our faculty seeks out highly motivated, independent-minded students with a strong desire to make art and to challenge conventional ideas. With mentoring and oneon-one critiques at the heart of an intensive educational experience, students are guaranteed the flexibility to chart their own creative development, whether in painting or video, photography or performance, typography or sculpture, digital imaging or sound installation, or, increasingly, new options
in multimedia technologies. We give students the necessary room to find their own voices. Our Programs in Art, Graphic Design, Photography and Media, and Art and Technology offer specific courses of study—and yet none is isolated from the others. We strongly encourage students to collaborate with one another across disciplines and to investigate hybrid art forms—not only within the School of Art but also throughout all of CalArts. All members of our faculty maintain active careers beyond the classroom. As a result, they are able to share insights on concerns and issues common to working
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artists, even as their backgrounds, philosophies and practices are richly diverse. This level of experience provides students with the information and intellectual skills they need to fully understand the complexities facing the professional artist today. We also invite to our campus each year some 75 visiting artists, designers and theorists from around the world to broaden the debate on contemporary art. This accu足 mulation of expertise provides an invaluable foundation on which students can build an independent practice and expand, as many School of Art alumni already have done, the limits of artmaking.
> art.calarts.edu
a. The mfa thesis show by Gracie DeVito, entitled Upside Turning, This Yearning.
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b. Andy Roberts of the Program in Art. c. The mfa Program in Graphic Design’s end-ofyear exhibition. d. The “First Reenactment” of Balancing Power in Fast Changing Societal and Natural Dynamics, a performance by Mélodie Mousset. e. Bella Bronson, food for thought, detail, mixed media, approx. 80 × 36 × 36 in. f. Okaynus the Love God, an exhibition by Lauren Halsey.
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The performance White Narcissus, Backstage Carnage by Johanna Breiding (left) in an exhibition of the same title.
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P ROGRAM IN
aRT
Four-year bfa, two-year mfa
The Program in Art invites students to question accepted ideas about contemporary art. Encompassing both studio practice and theory, it challenges artists to gain critical self-awareness about their own work and better understand the issues and contexts that inform artmaking today. Students are not required to concentrate on a
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particular medium; instead, the program relies on a flexible structure of individualized instruction and mentoring so that each artist can articulate his or her ideas, develop working methodologies, and successfully realize independent studio work.
Concentration in Integrated Media The mfa Program in Art and the mfa Program in Photography and Media offer a supplemental concentration, via the institute-wide Center for Integrated Media (cim), for artists who wish to com bine studio work with an exploration of interdisciplinary practices, participatory media, and interactive technologies.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Four-year bfa, two- or three-year mfa
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and enables each designer to integrate a command of visual language with imagination, theory and technology.
ART
The rigorous Program in Graphic Design prepares students for a wide range of professional options—from publication design to web design, from film title and broadcast design to exhibition design, from type design to careers in design education. The program emphasizes both formal and conceptual skills,
With a Specialization available in: Motion Graphics mfa level only
PHOTOGRAPHY AND MEDIA
P ROGRAM IN
Four-year bfa, two-year mfa
This program readies artists to pursue an independent creative practice in a world saturated with photography and new media. From undergraduate foundation work through graduate studies, the program’s curriculum explores,
examines and asks questions of contemporary modes of photography and media, and encourages students to engage in close critical analysis, extensive debate, and experimentation.
aRT AND T ECHNOLOGY
P ROGRAM IN
T wo-year mfa only
Launched in 2010, the graduate Program in Art and Technology enables students to investigate the creative and critical issues in artmaking today that involve new and emerging technologies—from object-based media to interactive design, from immersive installation to
hybrid performance. Students in this program are asked to develop a critical point of view regarding the social and political aspects that inform the way technology is functioning in contemporary culture. See detailed program descriptions at art.calarts.edu/programs Current course listings are available at courses.calarts.edu To apply to any of the programs offered by the School of Art, go to calarts.edu/apply All application and portfolio instructions are listed on the CalArts application web page.
a a. A team of CalArts students curated The Experimental Impulse, an historical survey shown at redcat. The exhibition chronicled Los Angeles art in the age of counterculture. It was presented as part of the Getty Foundation’s monumental series Pacific Standard Time: Art in l.a., 1945–1980. b. Daniel Regenstreif Axe, The Allegory for Irresistible Force Confronts The Metaphor of the Immovable Object, detail, wood, rock, flocked vinyl, nylon strap, 1,000 hand-sculpted, painted miniature squirrel sculptures, 100 ft. × 4 in. × 5 ft. c. Orlando Tirado Amador, ShamanColash, or Land, Sea, and Air (Self-Portrait), C-print with mirrored frame, 14 × 11 in. d. CalArts students, teaming up with visiting counterparts from centquatre in Paris and pact Zollverein in Essen, prepare makeshift props for a public performance on Hollywood Blvd. The weeklong collaboration held on the CalArts campus was part of an exchange program called Feldstärke International.
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e. This One Goes Out to the Whale Who Beached Herself, a performance by Liz Toonkel, who double majored in the Program in Art and Technology and the School of Theater’s Scene Design Program. f. In a project jointly organized with The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, School of Art students and alumni reenact founding CalArts faculty member Allan Kaprow’s 1970 Happening, entitled Publicity, at its original Vasquez Rocks location near Aqua Dulce, ca.
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a. Graphic designer Armando Martinez-Celis, too busy to turn around. b. Ariana Papademetropoulos, Myth of Er, oil on canvas, 65 × 45 in. c. Who For/What For, a multimedia performance created by Mélodie Mousset and Zachary Sharrin of the School of Art with music student Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir. Performed by a cast of seven, the piece was presented as part of the exhibition CalArts Plays Itself in Germany. d. Installation view of a bfa mid-residency show by Jessica Castillo called Home: The Threshold of Two Houses. e. A mural by Elin Lennox entitled Woot Woot nfl!, acrylic, glitter, approx. 24 × 10 ft. f. Poster design by Scott Massey and Thea Lorentzen, publicizing an on-campus screening series.
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aLUMNI of the School of Art include: Program in Art
Laura Owens (mfa 94)
Mark allen (mfa 99)
ariel Pink (bfa 00)
Edgar arceneaux (mfa 01)
Lari Pittman (mfa 76, bfa 74)
Judie Bamber (bfa 83)
Monique Prieto (mfa 94, bfa 92)
Ericka Beckman (mfa 76)
Stephen Prina (mfa 80)
Jeremy Blake (mfa 95)
Marina Rosenfeld (Art–Music mfa 94)
nayland Blake (mfa 84)
David Salle (mfa 75, bfa 73)
Ross Bleckner (mfa 73)
Jim Shaw (mfa 78)
Barbara Bloom (bfa 72)
Henry Taylor (bfa 96)
andrea Bowers (mfa 92)
Kaari Upson (mfa 07, bfa 04)
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Mark Bradford (mfa 97, bfa 95)
Lesley Vance (mfa 03)
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anthony Burdin (bfa 94)
Faith Wilding (mfa 73)
Ingrid Calame (mfa 96)
Christopher Williams (mfa 81, bfa 79)
Barbara Carrasco (mfa 91)
Mel Ziegler (mfa 82)
James Casebere (mfa 79)
Program in Graphic Design
Meg Cranston (mfa 86) Dorit Cypis (mfa 77)
Sean adams (bfa 86) And noreen Morioka (bfa 88)
Mariechen Danz (mfa 08)
anne Burdick (mfa 92, bfa 91)
Tomory Dodge (mfa 04)
Ryan Corey (bfa 05)
Kate Erickson (mfa 82)
Denise Gonzales Crisp (mfa 96)
Eric Fischl (bfa 72)
Kim Dulaney (bfa 05)
Jill Giegerich (mfa 77)
Barry Deck (mfa 89)
Liz Glynn (mfa 08)
Tahli Fisher (bfa 05)
Guillermo Gomez-Peña (mfa 83, bfa 81)
Jessica Fleischmann (mfa 01)
Sharon Greytak (mfa 82)
Jens Gehlhaar (mfa 97)
Kira Lynn Harris (mfa 98)
Barbara Glauber (mfa 90)
Jim Isermann (mfa 80)
Hilary Greenbaum (mfa 06)
Cameron Jamie (bfa 95)
Sibylle Hagmann (mfa 96)
Mike Kelley (mfa 78)
Yasmin Khan (mfa 05)
Tran T. Kim-Trang (mfa 93)
John Kieselhorst (mfa 96)
David Kordansky (mfa 02)
Zak Kyes (bfa 05)
Rachel Lachowitz (bfa 88)
Deborah Littlejohn (mfa 94)
Suzanne Lacy (mfa 73)
Kevin Lyons (mfa 96)
Elad Lassry (Art–Film/Video bfa 03)
Geoff McFetridge (mfa 95)
Rodney McMillian (mfa 02)
Kali nikitas (mfa 90)
John Miller (mfa 79)
Jonathan notaro (bfa 99)
Dave Muller (mfa 93)
Michael Polish (bfa 92)
Matt Mullican (bfa 74)
Lee Schultz (mfa 98)
alex Olson (mfa 08)
Jae-Hyouk Sung (mfa 03)
Rubén Ortiz-Torres (mfa 92)
andrea Tinnes (mfa 98)
Tony Oursler (bfa 79)
a. Dance artist Daniel Charon negotiates Choreography for a Liminal Space, an interactive environment created collectively in an Art and Technology workshop led by visiting artist Nina Waisman. b. Joshua Mark Logan, Drawing Gandalf, Drawing Obi-Wan, and Drawing Dumbledore, pencil on paper, brass tacks, 18 × 24 in. each. c. Johanna Reed, Motherload, a 30-hour durational performance based on the tragedy Hekabe by Euripedes. Enacted by 16 per formers and manifested from a 160-page adapted text.
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Faculty Program in Photography and Media angus andrews (bfa 99) James Baker (mfa 99) nancy Barton (mfa 84, bfa 82) Julie Becker (mfa 96, bfa 94)
anne Collier (bfa 93) Miles Coolidge (mfa 92)
Miranda Lichtenstein (mfa 93)
Thomas Lawson Jill and Peter Kraus Distinguished Chair in Art, Dean
Darcy Huebler Associate Dean
Tom Bland Assistant Dean for Technology
Leslie Dick
Darcy Huebler
Sam Durant
Thomas Lawson
Charles Gaines
John Mandel
Connie Hatch
Millie Wilson
Program in Art
Michael Mandiberg (mfa 03)
Jessica Bronson Program Co-Director Shirley Tse Program Co-Director
Carter Mull (mfa 06)
Karen atkinson
Kelly nipper (mfa 95)
Michael ned Holte
Daniel J. Martinez (bfa 79) Catherine Opie (mfa 88)
Program in graphic design Michael Worthington Program Co-Director
Caryn aono
Louise Sandhaus
Tom Bland
Gail Swanlund
Edward Fella
Lorraine Wild
Kelly Poe (mfa 02)
Scott Zukowski Program Co-Director
Todd Gray (mfa 89, bfa 79)
alex Slade (mfa 93)
Program in photography and media
Lyle ashton Harris (mfa 90)
Lucy Soutter (mfa 93)
Harry Gamboa Jr. Program Co-Director
Violet Hopkins (mfa 02)
Haruko Tanaka (mfa 03)
ashley Hunt Program Co-Director
Doug Ischar (mfa 87)
Jan Tumlir (mfa 88)
Ellen Birrell
adria Julia (mfa 03)
Carrie Mae Weems (bfa 81)
Program in Art and Technology
Robert Glenn Ketchum (mfa 73)
James Welling (mfa 74, bfa 72)
Zoe Crosher (mfa 01)
Jeffery Keedy
Tom Leeser Program Director
natalie Bookchin
andrew Freeman
Kaucyila Brooke
allan Sekula Robert Fitzpatrick Chair in Art
Jo ann Callis Judy Fiskin
Billy Woodberry
Tom Jennings
Helen Kim (mfa 99)
T echnical Faculty
See art.calarts.edu/alumni
Tom Bland
Chris Peters
Shari Bond
Shelley Stepp
Robert Dansby
Darrell Walters
Faculty bios are online at art.calarts.edu/faculty
Visiting Faculty The School of Art’s resident faculty is supplemented by visiting faculty members who each spend one or more semesters at CalArts. In the spring of 2012, visiting faculty members were:
Program in Art audrey Chan | Dawn Clements | Lecia Dole-Recio | Sandra Peters Jessica Rath | Ry Rocklen
Program in Graphic Design Beth Elliot | Eric Gero | Roman Jaster | Joyce Lightbody | Mark Owens Brian Roettinger | Stuart Smith | Brad Tucker
Program in Photography and Media Michelle Dizon | Suné Woods
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25 ART
Cindy Bernard (mfa 85, bfa 83)
Liz Larner (bfa 85)
Anne-Marie Kinney of the mfa Writing Program reads from her work as part of the program’s off-campus Next Words series. Her thesis project, a novel called Radio Iris, was published in 2012. “Radio Iris has a lovely, eerie, anxious quality to it… The story has a dramatic otherworldly payoff that is unexpected and triumphant,” according to The New York Times Book Review.
26 CRITICAL STUDIES
School of
Dean’s Introduction — Amanda Beech
Offering two master’s degree programs and the liberal arts curriculum for all CalArts Bachelor of Fine Arts (bfa) students, the School of Critical Studies establishes a vital discursive center for the entire CalArts community. Critical Studies is the site for the generation of new ideas through interaction and discussion with a diverse crosssection of practitioners and creative métiers— a place to acquire key intellectual skills and to interrogate what one might define as a “thinking practice.”
Students in our Master of Fine Arts (mfa) Writing Program and the Master of Arts (ma) Aesthetics and Politics Program develop and refine advanced creative writing and sophisticated critical scholarship in a unique multidisciplinary arts environment dedicated to experimentation and innovation. Unlike many liberal arts colleges or traditional art schools, CalArts links creative and critical practice in profound and generative ways. In the Writing Program, mfa candidates explore a wide variety of traditional and new forms, from narrative fiction to experimental criticism, from poetry to microblogging. Led by an acclaimed and aesthetically versatile faculty team— featuring winners of multiple literary, criticism, translation and arts awards— this program sets high standards for creativity, critical insight and craft. In particular, the program invites students to put forward experimental and interdisciplinary work: original
27 CRITICAL STUDIES
CR i t i CAL s t Ud i Es
practices that break with conventional categories and set new aesthetic horizons.
a
mfa writers have ample opportunities to read and/or perform their work, on campus and at venues across Los Angeles. Writers also can participate in the development and production of publications, most notably the nationally celeÂbrated literary journal Black Clock—a showcase for cutting-edge writing edited by faculty member Steve Erickson.
28 CRITICAL STUDIES
The ma Aesthetics and Politics Program focuses on the relationships between contemporary artmaking and aesthetic, critical and political theory. This concentrated one-year course of study is designed for undergraduate and graduate degree holders who wish to carry out scholarly work in a creative setting and artists who are interested in the nexus of artmaking and politics. ma candidates concentrate their work in one of three areas: Critical Theory, Media and Urban Studies, and Global Studies. The program regularly teams with institutional partners in Los Angeles and abroad to hold conferences and other presentations. In both programs, the expertise of the resident faculty is augmented with an extensive series of readings, lectures, workshops and longer-term residencies by visiting writers, theorists and artists. We also always encourage students to take classes offered by other CalArts schools, and collaborate and learn side by side with peers working in the visual, performing and media arts. Serving as teaching assistants in Critical Studies bfa classes, most of our graduate students fulfill an integral role in the delivery of a comprehensive, well-rounded undergraduate education, as they share their critical know-how and aesthetic experience with younger artists. Those who are eligible to apply for paid teaching assistantships are required to first complete a pedagogy practicum. In addition, most qualifying graduate students receive a combination of federal financial aid and competitive institutional scholarships.
> criticalstudies.calarts.edu An mfa Writing Program Showcase at Skylight Books in Los Feliz—one of several Los Angeles venues that regularly host readings by students in the program.
See detailed program descriptions at criticalstudies.calarts.edu/programs Current course listings are available at courses.calarts.edu To apply to one of the two graduate programs offered by the School of Critical Studies, go to calarts.edu/apply All application and portfolio instructions are listed on the CalArts application web page.
Critical Studies Undergraduate Requirements
T wo-year mfa
Housed in an arts college whose hallmark is creative experimentation, this dynamic and innovative program is designed for advanced writers to explore a range of forms and styles of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, writing for performance, essay writing, criticism, translation, digital writing, and hybrid compositions—finally culminating in a long-form thesis. The program’s non-tracking curriculum allows students to extend the range of their skills and methods, and to incorporate understanding of the artistic, conceptual and political contexts of contemporary writing into their own practices. Writing students with a profound interest in interdisciplinary study are encouraged to pursue Interschool degrees or participate in the Integrated Media concentration—two exciting options that exist only at CalArts.
Interschool Writing Program The mfa Writing Program accommodates a limited number of students who pursue writing and a second mfa course of study in the Schools of Art, Film/Video, Music, Theater or Dance. Interested applicants must be accepted by both programs for Interschool study.
Concentration in Integrated Media The Writing Program also offers a supplemental concentration, via the institute-wide Center for Integrated Media (cim), for students who wish to combine writing with an exploration of interdisciplinary practices, participatory media, and interactive technologies.
aesthetics and Politics Program
One-year MA
This program serves as a forum for scholars and artists to engage the crossover of aesthetic and political phenomena in the contemporary world. With core courses in aesthetic theory, political thought, and academic writing, as well as elective courses in critical theory, media and urban studies, and global studies, the program enables students to deepen their creative and intellectual work in close collaboration with distinguished faculty as well as internationally renowned visiting speakers. Interdisciplinary in its approach, the program is especially suited for ba, bfa and mfa degree holders, as well as for artists who seek to sharpen the theoretical and political dimensions of their practice.
29 CRITICAL STUDIES
To ensure that all CalArts bfa candidates have the broad knowledge and core intellectual, analytical and communications skills needed today for careers in the arts, the School of Critical Studies provides a robust general education curriculum that complements the work carried out in each student’s métier program. This innovative curriculum offers students a breadth and depth in learning, in the process uncovering new and sur prising territories for artistic practice. Stu dents experiment with methods of inquiry; make creative connections across different discourses; understand their métiers in wider contexts; and acquire the conceptual tools for a better-informed, more-effective practice. bfa candidates take two or three Critical Studies classes per semester, amounting to about 40 percent of their overall education.
graduate degree programs Writing Program
Faculty
of the School of Critical Studies include:
amanda Beech Dean
Writing Program
Michael Bryant Associate Dean
Harold abramowitz (mfa 06), writer, author of Not Blessed
Writing Program Faculty
30
aLUMNI
Janet Sarbanes Program Director: fiction, narrative theory, cultural studies
Jon Wagner film theory and history, critical writing, literary theory
Tisa Bryant fiction, hybrid forms, experimental writers of color
Christine Wertheim women’s writing, experimental writing, feminist studies
Steve Erickson fiction, Black Clock editor
Bruce Bauman (adjunct): fiction, popular criticism
Maggie nelson poetry, memoir, creative nonfiction
Jen Hofer (adjunct): poetry, diy publishing
Mady Schutzman performance studies, writing for performance, creative nonfiction
Douglas Kearney (affiliated): poetry, writing for performance, African American studies
CRITICAL STUDIES
Matias Viegener creative nonfiction, gender studies and queer theory, art criticism
A esthetics and Politics Program Faculty arne De Boever Program Director: literary criticism, critical theory, American studies Douglas Kearney cultural criticism, African American studies, thesis seminar Chandra Khan networked communities, South Asian and Pacific Rim culture and politics, global studies
norman M. Klein cultural criticism, urban and media history Martín Plot political theory, American and Latin American culture and politics James Wiltgen critical theory, Latin American arts, image and film theory
Critical Studies Undergraduate Faculty
josé felipe alvergue (mfa 04), poet, author of us look up / there red dwells andrew Berardini (mfa 06), art writer, author of the monograph Richard Jackson allison Carter (mfa 07), writer, author of A Fixed, Formal Arrangement andrew Choate (mfa 03), writer, author of Language Makes Plastic of the Body; Stingray Clapping Ken Ehrlich (mfa 99), artist, writer, editor; ed. Surface Tension series; ed. Art, Architecture, Pedagogy: Experiments in Learning Malik Gaines (mfa 99), writer, curator, performance artist, member of My Barbarian Douglas Kearney (mfa 04), poet, performer, librettist, author of Fear, Some; The Black Automaton; winner of the Whiting Writers Award anne-Marie Kinney (mfa 05), novelist, author of Radio Iris Max Kim (mfa 07), novelist, author of One Break A Thousand Blows
Grace Krilanovich (mfa 05), novelist, author of Orange Eats Creeps, winner of the National Book Award “5 under 35” Brandon LaBelle (mfa 98), writer, artist, publisher, author of Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art; Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life; ed. Surface Tension series and Critical Ear series, editor and publisher of Errant Bodies Press andrea Lambert (mfa 08), novelist, author of Jet Set Desolate Janice Lee (mfa 08), writer, author of Kerotakis; Daughter; editor of {out of nothing} Felicia Luna Lemus (mfa 00), novelist, author of Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties; Like Son amarnath Ravva (mfa 04), writer, author of American Canyon Sam Stern (mfa 05), memoirist, author of American Gangbang: A Love Story Lauren Strasnick (mfa 05), young adult writer, author of Nothing Like You; Her and Me and You; Then You Were Gone Mathew Timmons (mfa 05), poet, editor and publisher of Insert Blanc Press, author of Joyful Noise; The New Poetics; CREDIT
Most members of the graduate faculty also teach Critical Studies undergraduate classes. The undergraduate faculty further includes:
Cheryl Klein (mfa 02), novelist, author of The Commuters; Lilac Mines
Bill alschuler physical science, science and art
A esthetics and Politics Program
Michael Bryant science
nick Benacerraf (ma 10), stage designer, installation artist, theorist, educator Virginia Chiang (ma 09), media theorist John D’amico (ma 09), writer and activist, West Hollywood City Councilmember Drew Denny (ma 09), artist Shoghig Halajian (ma 11), curator John Kern (ma 09), actor
Miriam nouri (ma 11), writer, artist, ma candidate in New York University’s Trauma and Violence Transdisciplinary Program Jeremy “nate” Schulman (ma 09), graphic designer Claudia Slanar (ma 09), writer Irene Tsatsos (ma 10), curator austin Walker (ma 11), PhD candidate in the University of Western Ontario’s Information and Media Studies Program
Taras Matla (ma 10), curator, assistant director of Curator’s Office, Washington, dc
Faculty bios are online at criticalstudies.calarts.edu/faculty
See writing.calarts.edu/alumni See aestheticsandpolitics.calarts.edu/alumni
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VISITING FACULTY, LECTURERS AND SPEAKERS WRITING PROGRAM Visiting Faculty amy Gerstler | Veronica Gonzalez | Claire Phillips Michelle Tea
Visiting Writers including Black Clock contributors Daniel alarcón | aimee Bender | CAConrad | allison Hedge Coke | Bernard Cooper | Mark Z. Danielewski Dolores Dorantes | LaTasha n. Nevada Diggs | Heidi W. Durrow | Danielle Dutton | Brian Evenson | Thomas Glave Renee Gladman | Myriam Gurba | Jack Halberstam Suheir Hammad | Brian Kiteley | Wayne Koestenbaum Sueyeun Juliette Lee | ali Liebegott | Jonathan Lethem Joseph McElroy | Rick Moody | Eileen Myles | D.a. Powell ariana Reines | Gail Scott | Joanna Scott | Eleni Sikelianos | David Shields | anna Joy Springer | Susan Straight | abdellah Taïa | Mónica de la Torre | Catherine Wagner | Rebecca Wolff
aesthetics and Politics Program Visiting Faculty Kate Elswit | Rita Gonzalez
Visiting Theorists and Lecturers andrew arato | alain Badiou | Étienne Balibar | ali Behdad | Michael Bielicky | Manuel Castells | ananya Chatterjea | Jodi Dean | Diedrich Diederichsen | Brent Hayes Edwards | Darby English | Hans Haacke | Ernest Hardy | Bonnie Honig | Dick Howard | Ernesto Laclau Marquis Lewis (aka Retna) | Catherine Malabou | Timothy Morton | Fred Moten | Sianne ngai | nicholas Ridout Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak | Bernard Stiegler | Greg Tate | Kyla Wazana Tompkins | Samuel Weber
Undergraduates A.J. Schemadovits-Norris (left) and Jeremy Sless enact a 5-minute puppet show as part of a foundation class taught by faculty member Mady Schutzman called “Doubles in Art and Culture.” The point of the class exercise was for students to “find ways to animate various inanimate objects that have some significance in their lives,” says Schutzman.
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CRITICAL STUDIES
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a. Writing Program faculty member Tisa Bryant leads a discussion of John D’Agata’s anthology The Lost Origins of the Essay.
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b. Visiting Kurdish American poet and activist Cklara Moradian (center) marks International Women’s Day with a presentation in the Institute’s Main Gallery. c. Aesthetics and Politics Program faculty member Norman M. Klein gives a talk at redcat on his work The Imaginary 20th Century—an alternate-history novel on dvd-rom that operates as a huge data field, with 2,200 images, films and a sound engine. d. A poster announcing a forthcoming season of the West Hollywood Aesthetics and Politics (whap) Lecture Series, held at the West Hollywood Library, thanks to the good offices of alumnus and WeHo Councilmember John D’Amico. e. Music student Alex Emami ponders the subject at hand in a Critical Studies class called “Horror and Other Rotten Cores.” f. The cover of Army of One, a collection of Southern California-themed stories by Janet Sarbanes, director of the mfa Writing Program
33 CRITICAL STUDIES
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a. Music student Thea Mesirow (left) transforms her cello into an outspoken—and very funny— instrument with a voice of its own during Mady Schutzman’s (center) foundation class “Doubles in Art and Culture.” b. Faculty member Bruce Bauman (center) moderates the Writing Program’s mfa Thesis Seminar. c. ma candidate Seth Stewart of the Aesthetics and Politics Program. d. Poster announcing a reading at redcat entitled “Ugly Feelings,” featuring faculty member Maggie Nelson and visiting writers Jack Halberstam and Wayne Koestenbaum—who each delve into the darker realms of human emotion.
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CRITICAL STUDIES
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a. An end-of-year showcase reading by graduating mfa writers at redcat.
c. A selection of works by graduating Writing Program students is collected each year in the anthology Next Words.
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37 CRITICAL STUDIES
b. The opening spread of Don DeLillo’s “Woman in the Distance,” a meditation on the 1971 cult film Wanda, in Black Clock, the Writing Program’s literary journal edited by faculty member and acclaimed novelist Steve Erickson. “There’s never before been a literary journal with exactly the power and elegance, even the force of enigma, of Black Clock,” says contributing writer Jonathan Lethem.
a
38 DANCE a. Bleep, an ensemble piece choreographed by Bianca Mendoza, was performed at the Student Choice Concert—the annual concert curated entirely by students. b. Olivia Goldberg in class. c. Erica Carpenter performs site-based work on campus.
The Sharon Disney Lund School of
Dance is a discipline that requires physical, intellectual and artistic sophistication. The comprehensive curricula of The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance include rigorous training in traditional ballet and contemporary dance techniques as well as diverse contemporary approaches to cultivating complex physical skills and a range of artistic styles. Dean’s Introduction — Stephan Koplowitz
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Courses in improvisation, composition and choreography stimulate imagination, creativity, problem solving, and an ability to utilize craft to give shape and voice to personal artistic vision. Interdisciplinary courses investigate the potent relationships between dance and music, video, theater arts, and writing. In classes and on stage, students gain practical experience in all aspects of production, including lighting and costume design. A wide range of courses in history and cultural studies broaden and deepen perspective on dance as an art form and enable our students to become critically-aware thinkers and artists. As CalArts alumni have amply shown, our programs—the bfa Program in Dance and the mfa Program in Choreography—develop technically skilled, artistically intelligent dance artists with the broad knowledge necessary to be successful in the professional world as performers, choreographers and educators. To study at CalArts means that you are a member of a unique institution, one that allows for cross-disciplinary work, the chance to meet colleagues in different disciplines, and to live in a dynamic environment that encourages innovation, experimentation, and creative connections.
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39 DANCE
dAnCE
The size of The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance is optimal in that the school can function both as a close-knit community, where much attention is given to the individual student, and as part of a larger world of practicing artists, including previous graduates of CalArts.
40 DANCE
As dean, I am committed to ensuring that each individual student who comes to our school is met with respect and the opportunity to develop into the unique, creative, individual dance artist that she or he is passionate to become. We understand that selecting CalArts as a place of college study is in itself a strong statement towards realizing one’s artistic goals. The most important principle of our dedicated professional faculty is to guide and mentor each student in finding her or his unique path within the CalArts learning experience and, ultimately, into the professional world of dance. We are deeply committed to maintaining the highest standards in artistic and academic achievement and to broadening the horizons of contemporary dance. Our singular goal as a premier dance school, as it has been since CalArts first opened, is to train the artists who advance the fine art of dance so that it continues to stir and challenge the human imagination.
> dance.calarts.edu
a
a. Dance students attend an audition workshop conducted by director Sue Hamilton and casting director Daniel Solis of Disney. b. A master class with visiting choreographer Jess Curtis (background), winner of the Alpert Award in the Arts. Also pictured: Hannah Cavallaro. c. Melissa Bourkas (left) and Jon Nai Russell in Skin Deep, choreographed by Jason Williams, presented as part of the Open House Dance Concert—one of 12 or more formal concerts each year. d. Dina Lasso (left) and Hannah Cavallaro in Jess Winter’s master class.
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42
DANCE
Bfa PROGRAM IN
DANCE
The intensive four-year bfa Program in Dance provides a developmental path to high-level professional skills, allowing dancers and choreographers to combine strong ballet and contemporary technique with creative initiative, self-confidence, resourcefulness, and wide-ranging literacy in the art form. Also offering comprehensive instruction in dance production—including stagecraft, lighting and costume design, music and video for dance, and dance on camera—the program is grounded in one-on-one mentoring by a faculty of experienced practicing artists.
See detailed program descriptions at dance.calarts.edu/programs Current course listings are available at courses.calarts.edu To apply to The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance, go to calarts.edu/apply All application, audition and portfolio instructions are listed on the CalArts application web page. a. Adam Wile in the mfa Thesis Concert by Cherise Richards, entitled Human Atlas.
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43 DANCE
choreography
b. Jordon Waters (foreground) was among the dancers who performed in Never Odd or Even, Ann Moore’s Thesis Concert.
Focused on the art of choreography, this nationally recognized two-year mfa program is designed for experienced dance artists who aim to pursue professional careers as choreographers and educators. The curriculum enables each mfa candidate to develop and refine his or her own personal aesthetic, become conversant in the organizing concepts of choreography and dance theory, meet the practical demands of producing— including multimedia and site-based performances—and identify his or her larger artistic and career goals.
Concentration in Integrated Media The mfa Program in Choreography offers a supplemental concentration, via the institute-wide Center for Integrated Media (cim), for dance artists who wish to combine their study of choreography with an exploration of interdisciplinary practices, participatory media, and interactive technologies. c. Guest choreographer Darrell Grand Moultrie’s The Eternal Knot was featured in the 2012 Next Dance Concert. The annual spring concert is presented by The Next Dance Company on campus and at redcat. Comprising the artists of each year’s bfa graduating class, the school’s resident company is designed to mirror the experiences graduates are likely to encounter in professional companies.
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d. Michael Tomlin iii and Misha Vickroy in Human Atlas, choreographed by Cherise Richards.
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44 DANCE
a. Erica Carpenter in Memories Like a Movie, choreographed by faculty member Laurence Blake. The piece was staged at the 2012 Next Dance Concert. b. Lexi Gibbons (left) and Gisele Johnson in Adam Wile’s Obelisk, presented at the Next Dance Concert. c. Ann Moore’s mfa Thesis Concert, entitled Never Odd or Even, featured (from left) Lauren Fries, Lindsey Lollie and Michelle Sagarminaga.
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45 DANCE
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Faculty 46
Stephan Koplowitz Dean
DANCE
Cynthia Young Associate Dean, Financial Aid Liaison Laurence Blake Assistant Dean andre Tyson Assistant Dean Ed Groff Assistant Director, mfa Program in Choreography, Coordinator of Academic Affairs Colin Connor Director, Student Professional Development
Mimi Kite Administrative Assistant
Iain Court Technical Director/ Lighting Designer Grant Gorrell Associate Technical Director/Production Manager
Laurence Blake ballet technique, men’s class
Stephan Koplowitz choreography, mfa thesis seminar
Colin Connor contemporary technique and choreography
Donna Krasnow anatomy of movement
Iain Court lighting design, theater technology Robin Cox music for dancers, graduate music seminar
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natalie Metzger Operations Manager, Producer of Special Projects
Glen Eddy ballet technique, partnering Rosanna Gamson composition Grant Gorrell lighting design, stage management Ed Groff dance history, Laban, mfa thesis seminar Madeline Keller costume design
Teresina Mosco ballet technique Stephanie Nugent contemporary technique, composition, improvisation Francesca Penzani dance for camera, integrated media Roberta Shaw dance for camera, video editing andre Tyson contemporary technique, jazz, Pilates Cynthia Young ballet technique, Pointe, Pilates
Faculty bios are online at dance.calarts.edu/faculty
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aLUMNI
of The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance include: luciana achugar (bfa 95), Bessie Awardwinning independent choreographer
Deborah Goffe (mfa 01), performer, choreographer, dance educator and video artist
anna Brady nuse (bfa 99), dance filmmaker; director, Pentacle Movement Media
Karl anderson (bfa 86), artistic director, slamfest
Levi Gonzalez (bfa 97), performer, choreographer and dance educator
Iris Pell (bfa 73), independent choreographer and dance educator
Estelle Woodward arnal (bfa 96), chore ographer and curator Ella Ben-aharon (bfa 03), artistic director and choreographer, YelleB Dance Ensemble
Debra Bluth (mfa 93), artistic director and cho reographer, debrabluth/ jesterfly Keisha Clarke (bfa 98), former dancer, Garth Fagan Dance Katie Diamond (bfa 03), dancer, Limón Dance Company Jonathan Fredrickson (bfa 06), dancer, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Frit (mfa 88, bfa 84) and Frat (bfa 86) Fuller, co-artistic directors and chore ographers, kin Dance Company Wanda Gala (bfa 05), independent choreographer and arts educator
Sahar Javedani (mfa 03), artistic director and choreographer, compani javedani
Cynthia Pepper (bfa 84), artistic director, CPCollaborations Sam Piperato (bfa 90), solo dance artist and songwriter
Mary ann Kellog (mfa 75), film chore ographer
Susan Rose (mfa 73, bfa 71), artistic director and choreographer, Susan Rose and Dancers; faculty, Department of Dance, uc Riverside
Misa Kelly (mfa 96), choreographer and movement artist; co-founder, ArtBark
Kim Shipp (mfa 98), artistic director and choreographer, Shipp Dance Theater
Min Li (bfa 07), dancer, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam
Dawn Stoppiello (bfa 89), Bessie Awardwinning co-artistic director and choreographer, Troika Ranch
Ryan Mason (mfa 07), dancer, johannes wieland Dallas McMurray (bfa 06), dancer, Mark Morris Dance Group nycole Merritt (bfa 96), dancer, Dallas Black Dance Theater Laura Gorenstein Miller (bfa 92), artistic director and choreographer, Helios Dance Theater
See dance.calarts.edu/alumni
Lisa Townsend (mfa 94), artistic director and choreographer, Lisa Townsend Company Kate Weare (bfa 94), Alpert Award-nominated artistic director and choreographer, Kate Weare Company
47 DANCE
Jamie Bishton (bfa 84), artistic director, Jamie Bishton | dance
Jacques Heim (mfa 91), artistic director and choreographer, Diavolo Dance Theater
a. Christine Caimares dances in the 2012 Student Choice Dance Concert. b. Chelsea Conwright, also performing at the Student Choice Concert. c. Sacrament, Natalie Metzger’s mfa Thesis Concert, was later presented at the performance venue Highways in Santa Monica.
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48 DANCE
B a. Renowned visiting choreographer Kyle Abraham, artistic director of Abraham. In.Motion, gives a master class in The Sharon Disney Lund Dance Theater. Abraham visited CalArts in connection with his company’s performance at redcat. b. Students confab in the Lund Theater. c. Erin McCarthy in class.
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School of
f i LM/ V i dEo
50 FILM/VIDEO
The School of Film/Video is one of the world’s foremost colleges for the study and practice of the art of the moving image. As a community, we are devoted to filmmaking as a personal, independent art form.
Dean’s Introduction — Steve Anker a
The school is unique in that it promotes the production of all major types of film and media work: dramatic narrative, documentary, experimental live-action, character-based story animation, experi mental animation, multimedia, live performance, and installation. We offer four programs, each with its own specialized curriculum. Yet all four share a strong ethos in combining rigorous prac tical training with theoretical inquiry, hands-on production with bold aesthetic exploration. The Program in Film and Video serves as a dynamic laboratory setting for creating new forms of experimental, documentary, narrative and installation work utilizing both film and digital video. Our internationally renowned animation programs— Experimental Animation and Character Animation—give students an excellent foundation in both technique and creative thinking, preparing them to produce
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51 FILM/VIDEO
a. mfa students in the Film Directing Program stage and shoot oneact plays in a class led by Deborah LaVine (top left), co-director of the program.
b. Tariq Tapa made his mfa thesis film, Zero Bridge, in Kashmir with a cast of non-pro actors. The film earned Tapa two nominations at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. c. Michael Herrara of the Program in Character Animation.
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a. Still from the Disney Channel animated series Gravity Falls, created by alumnus Alex Hirsch—named by Ani mation Magazine as one of the “Rising Stars of Animation. “I remem ber all in one day I got calls from Pixar, Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg himself,” says Hirsch.
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b. Shadow My Shadow, a multimedia performance by Bo-Sul Kim that included projected video and animation with live dance by Robin Wilson. The piece was a selection of the 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.
FILM/VIDEO
c. Still from Kirsten Lepore’s stop-motion short Bottle. The film earned Lepore the first-ever Student Annie Award, as well as top prizes at Slamdance, the Vimeo Awards, and a number of international festivals. d. Bradley Schaffer of the bfa Program in Experimental Animation.
work at the forefront of commercial and personal animated film, as well as in related fields from gaming to graphic novels. The Film Directing Program focuses on developing innovative approaches to independent narrative cinema and honing a distinct directorial voice. In each program, we encourage all students to push the boundaries of their chosen media. As a result, graduates of the School of Film/Video have distinguished themselves in every area of independent and commercial filmmaking. Their work has been represented extensively at major festivals and museums around the world as much as it has been in the film, television, animation and gaming industries. The richness of the CalArts experience is based on four general components. The first is a body of self-motivated, intellectually curious students ready to find new forms and expressions. The second is an outstanding faculty of professional artists and technicians who share their artistry and knowledge with passion and generosity. Third is an extensive inventory of production facilities and equipment, while fourth is the unique cross-pollination of the different disciplines essential to CalArts. The combination of the four elements generates a lively and stimulating creative learning environment—one that allows every student to expand his or her cultural experience and, in the process, develop into a better artist, with a well-informed, highly articulated personal vision. The School of Film/Video stands as the only American film school to have been honored with a retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. The sweeping three-month survey, entitled Tomorrowland: CalArts in Moving Pictures, covered decades of innovative film, video and animation made by artists at the Institute. Today, our students and faculty are adding to this rich legacy as they put forward their original work with the daring, independence and insight that are the hallmarks of this school.
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> filmvideo.calarts.edu
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PROGRAM IN FILM AND VIDEO Four-year bfa, three-year mfa
This intensive program has been designed for independent artists for whom film and digital image-making is a personal calling and not merely a mode of production. The program supports an unparalleled breadth of work—from personal essays and political documentaries to experiments in narrative, from lyrical and abstract films to installation and new media. Students acquire a full range of technical and practical skills, learn to think critically about their chosen media, and work to develop a precise language and aesthetic for personal articulation.
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Calarts aNIMATION
FILM/VIDEO
CalArts is renowned for educating many of the world’s top animators in the film and television industries as well as in the fine arts world. All approaches to the art of animation, from character-based storytelling to personally expressive and experimental forms, are fully supported by the versatile, highly experienced faculty in our two animation programs. The school’s comprehensive approach allows each student to best develop his or her creative interests and voice—in any direction that student wishes to pursue. Students and alumni from both programs continue to win countless major awards, break box-office records, and receive widespread critical acclaim at festivals and museums around the globe.
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EXPERIMENTAL aNIMATION
Four-year bfa, three-year mfa
For adventurous artists who regard animation as an ever-evolving art form, the Program in Experimental Animation offers a framework in which students develop and refine aesthetically progressive concepts and professional art practices. The program cultivates a wide variety of skills—including 2-d, 3-d and stop-motion animation, installation and performance work, and the integration of digital and traditional techniques. Experimental Animation makes it possible for graduates to position themselves as independent innovators who can shape the future direction of the art of animation.
P ROGRAM IN
CHARACTER aNIMATION
Four-year bfa only
Recognized worldwide, this program provides comprehensive artistic and technical training in the art of story animation using both traditional and cg tools. The curriculum is sequential in structure, with each year adding depth and complexity to the concepts explored. Emphasis is placed on performance and acting in courses that include hand-drawn character animation, life drawing, story, design, and visual development. Students in the program build up professional-caliber portfolios, allowing them to go on to careers ranging from major studio animation and independent filmmaking to gaming and graphic novels.
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FILM DIRECTING PROGRAM
Three-year mfa only
b. An installation by Jason Davis called A Prescrip tion, featuring four video channels of animation projected onto a fabricated wall structure and accompanied by audio. c. Students at a screening in the Main Gallery. d. Still from Natasha Mendonca’s film essay Jan Villa, an evocative “tapestry of images” shot in Mumbai. The film won top awards at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
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Concentration in Integrated Media The mfa Program in Film and Video and the mfa Program in Experimental Animation offer a supplemental concentration, via the institutewide Center for Integrated Media (cim), for students who wish to combine filmmaking and animation with an exploration of interdisciplinary practices, participatory media, and interactive technologies.
See detailed program descriptions at filmvideo.calarts.edu/programs Current course listings are available at courses.calarts.edu To apply to any of the programs offered by the School of Film/Video, go to calarts.edu/apply All application and portfolio instructions are listed on the CalArts application web page.
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This graduate program for independent dramatic filmmaking enables students to develop innovative approaches to storytelling based on examining the broad spectrum of narrative cinema. The curriculum covers the fundamental aesthetic and technical components of film directing, with additional emphasis placed on screenwriting, acting, and dramaturgical scene study. In the process, students learn to work with actors, develop visual strategies, and hone methods for shaping stories—both invented and adapted—that are emotionally true and dramatically credible.
c
a. Experimental Animation mfa student Natalya Serebrennikova uses a stereogram to view circular sculptures, dubbed “cinetropes,” created by visiting artist Eric Dyer. Made with 3-d printed parts, the cinetropes were featured in Dyer’s zoetrope animated short called The Bellows March.
a. Character Animation faculty Jon Gomez (left) in a life drawing class with alumnus Brian Carter, now a technical director on South Park. b. The Video Studio, one of the school’s four sound stages. c. Still from Eliza Hittman’s thesis film Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight, which premiered at Sundance. A coming-of-age drama with teen Russian immigrants in Brooklyn, the film was enacted mostly in Russian. d. Coding System for Reducing Redundancy, a live projection performance by Kerstin Hovland. e. Drawings by Eunbeal Cho. f. Andy Alderete of the mfa Program in Film and Video.
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FILM/VIDEO
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Faculty Steve anker Dean Rachelle Katz Associate Dean, Finance and Operations
Gary Mairs Associate Dean, Academic Affairs Leo F. Hobaica Jr. Assistant Dean
Program in Character A nimation Daniel Hansen Program Director
Program in F ilm and Video Betzy Bromberg Program Director Thom andersen Steve anker Rebecca Baron
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James Benning
FILM/VIDEO
nathan Crow John Hawk Christine Hill adele Horne Laura Kraning Gordon Kurowski Gary Mairs Raffaello Mazza nina Menkes nicole Panter astra Price Charlotte Pryce Bérénice Reynaud Lisa Schoenberg Craig Smith Jerry Summers Janice Tanaka Billy Woodberry
Program in Experimental A nimation
Maija Burnett Associate Program Director Steve anderson
Hillary Kapan Program Co-Director
andrew Bac
Kirsten Winter Program Co-Director
Eric Deuel
Dominic Bisignano Stephen Chiodo Myron Emery Maureen Furniss Soyeon Kim Irene Kotlarz George Maestri Emery Martin Raffaello Mazza Suzan Pitt Eileen Reynolds Michael Scroggins Maureen Selwood Craig Smith James Stapp Jerry Summers Helder Sun Paul Vester John Yoon
Steve Brown
Robert Domingo Robert Duncan Carl Faruolo Eric Favela Maureen Furniss Jon Gomez Lee Gramling Gregory Griffith Randy Haycock Jim Higgins Leo F. Hobaica Jr. Marjan Hormozi Benjamin Huff Jim Hull Brigette Jimenez Judith Karfiol Lisa Keene Brooke Keesling Soyeon Kim Fran Krause Sue Kroyer Dave Lebow Minkyu Lee Stuart Livingston James Lopez Steven Macleod
Faculty bios are online at filmvideo.calarts.edu/faculty
John Mahoney Ric Maki Ethan Metzger nicole Panter Bill Perkins Scott Peters Lindsey Pollard Phil Rynda Christopher Sonnenburg andy Suriano Maria Vasilkovsky
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F ilm Directing Program Deborah LaVine Program Co-Director Gary Mairs Program Co-Director Charles Burnett John Hawk Monte Hellman Ki Jin Kim Paul Kyle Ernie Marrero Kye Potter Jon Reiss Lee anne Schmitt abigail Severance Craig Smith Suanne Spoke Jerry Summers
T echnical Operations Joe Corrigan nathan Crow Thomas Evans Rachelle Katz Scott Kozberg Gordon Kurowski Paul Kyle Emery Martin Raffaello Mazza nathan Meier Kye Potter Lisa Schoenberg Craig Smith Nathan Strum Jerry Summers Linda Wissmath
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a. The end-of-year screening of work by students in the Program in Character Animation, held in the Institute’s Main Gallery. b. Quique Rivera works with stop-motion puppets on the set for El delirio del pez león (Lionfish delusion)—an underwater neo-noir story about greed and hierarchy in the Caribbean reefs. c. Still from Peter Bo Rappmund’s Pyschohydrography, in which the filmmaker used single-frame photography to build hd video. Poetically addressing one of the most controversial subjects in Southern California history— the struggle over water—Rappmund’s experimental doc umentary follows the course of the Los Angeles water supply from its source in the Eastern Sierra Nevada all the way to the Pacific Ocean. d. Each fall, around October, the corridors of the Institute are adorned with cut-paper images and scenes by firstyear undergrads in Leo F. Hobaica Jr.’s animation foundation class called “Design and Color: Imagining and Imaging.” This is an exercise in which students are asked to use silhouette forms to dramatically convey a story in a single view.
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a. Sculptures of characters designed by animation student Aron Bothman. b. Shadow My Shadow, a multimedia performance by Bo-Sul Kim that was staged in the school’s Black-andWhite Studio, a space often used for installations and performances. c. Nicole Emmons with a stop-motion animation set. d. Experimental Animation mfa student Dillon Markey works on a mechanical “puppet” replica of his own head, which he used in his thesis film Over the River and Through the Higher Dimensions. Combining live action, stop-motion animation, cg and several other techniques, the film explored instantaneous travel through other dimensions thanks to a “teleporter” provided by Markey’s grandmother. e. Visiting artist and filmmaker Sun Xun (left) with CalArts students Tang Li (center) and Kang Min Kim. Sun was on the CalArts campus in connection with presenting a program of shorts at redcat, featuring an expansive imagistic world that evokes China’s checkered voyage toward technological and political modernity.
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f. Students with an extra-tall camera rig.
FILM/VIDEO
aLUMNI of the School of Film/Video include: Program in Film and Video anna Biller (Film/Video–Art mfa 93) Q. allan Brocka (mfa 01) Madison Brookshire (mfa 07) Bill Brown (mfa 97) alexandra Cuesta (mfa 09) Sean Daniel (bfa 73) Dane a. Davis (bfa 81) Rhys Ernst (mfa 11) Rodney Evans (mfa 96) David Fenster (mfa 04) Robert Fenz (mfa 02) William E. Jones (mfa 90) Carole Kim (Film/Video–Integrated Media mfa 01) Gina Kim (mfa 99) Hyunkyung Kim (mfa 04) Laura Kraning (mfa 09)
Joel Lam (mfa 01)
Program in Experimental A nimation
Laida Lertxundi (mfa 07)
Jason Carpenter (mfa 06)
Mark Osborne (bfa 92)
Lin Li (mfa 01)
Peter Chung (81)
natasha Mendonca (mfa 10)
Eric Darnell (mfa 90)
Joanna Priestley (mfa 85)
M. David Mullen (mfa 91)
Paul Demeyer (mfa 77)
Mike Ott (mfa 05, bfa 03)
Jorge R. Gutierrez (mfa 00, bfa 97)
akosua adoma Owusu (Film/Video–Art mfa 08)
Stephen Hillenburg (mfa 92)
Theron Patterson (mfa 99) Peter Bo Rappmund (mfa 10) Deborah Stratman (mfa 95)
Bo-Sul Kim (Film/Video–Integrated Media 09) Jung-Ho Kim (mfa 04) Mark Kirkland (bfa 78)
Jason Tippet (bfa 08) naomi Uman (mfa 98)
amy Kravitz (mfa 86) Kirsten Lepore (mfa 12)
Erika Vogt (mfa 04) Christopher Wilcha (mfa 98) C.J. Winter (mfa 07)
Glen Keane (74)
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Christine Panushka (mfa 88) Kathy Rose (mfa 74) Jen Sachs (mfa 01) allison Schulnik (bfa 00) Henry Selick (mfa 77) Beomsik Shimbe Shim (mfa 09) Steve Subotnick (mfa 86, bfa 84) Brian Tan (bfa 05) David Wilson (mfa 76) Ben Zelkowicz (mfa 02)
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f
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Program in Character Animation
Film Directing Program
Henry anderson (bfa 88)
Craig McCracken (92)
andrew ahn (mfa 11)
Casey Kriley (mfa 98)
Steve anderson (91)
John Musker (77)
asitha amereseker (mfa 98)
Cy Kuckenbaker (mfa 04)
Katie ackerman Buchanan (mfa 00)
James Mangold (bfa 85)
Lorette Bayle (mfa 99)
Waleed Moursi (mfa 03)
Carlos Ramos (bfa 97)
Scott Cummings (mfa 07)
David nordstrom (mfa 05)
Chris Sanders (bfa 84)
Markus Engel (mfa 98)
Gregorios Rentis (mfa 10)
andy Schuhler (bfa 98)
Fabian Vasquez Euresti (mfa 10)
Mason Richards (mfa 09)
andrew Stanton (bfa 87)
Javier FuentesLeón (mfa 98)
Maneesh Sharma (mfa 04)
Randy Haycock (90)
Genndy Tartakovsky (cer 92)
Rachel Goldberg (mfa 00)
Young Mo Son (mfa 09)
Don Hall (bfa 95)
ann Telnaes (bfa 85)
alex Hirsch (bfa 07)
Gary Trousdale (82)
aurora Guerrero (mfa 99)
Jigyasa Taneja (mfa 03)
Morgan Kelly (bfa 03)
J.J. Villard (bfa 04)
Darren Herczeg (mfa 06)
Tariq Tapa (mfa 08)
Chris Larson (bfa 92)
Pendleton Ward (bfa 05)
Mark andrews (bfa 93) Jeremy Bernstein (bfa 03) Brad Bird (76) Dave Bossert (bfa 83) Tim Burton (79) Brenda Chapman (bfa 87) Pete Docter (bfa 90) Ralph Eggleston (86)
John Lasseter (bfa 79) Minkyou Lee (bfa 09)
Randy Myers (92) Mike nguyen (88) J.G. Quintel (bfa 05) Shane Prigmore (99)
Kirk Wise (cer 85) David Wolter (11) nate Wragg (05) niki Yang (bfa 03)
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Eliza Hittman (mfa 10) Xuan Jiang (mfa 07) Yoon-Cheol Kim (mfa 04)
antonio Tibaldi (mfa 87) andrew Tsao (mfa 90)
See filmvideo.calarts.edu/ alumni
a. Faculty member Wadada Leo Smith. b. mfa soprano Carmina Escobar performs John Cage’s Aria at redcat as part of a two-night CalArts festival celebrating the centenary of the composer’s birth. c. Graduate flutist Molly McLaughlin.
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The Herb Alpert School of
Dean’s Introduction — David Rosenboom
What makes a great school of music in the present age? Here in The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, we believe such a school is one of ever-open musical possibilities. It is a fertile environment for the evolution of musicmaking as well as for the teaching and learning of music.
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A great school of music is one that is in tune with the unprecedented stylistic egalitarianism of our time, a school that enables young music artists to recognize their original voices and develop them with skills on the highest level. It is a school that helps students to build a frame around their creative profiles and to give focus to their emerging visions in the context of the vast and varied global cultural landscape of today. A great school of music is one that fosters informed mobility among cultures and deepens the understanding necessary to be effective across a range of collaborative creative situations and settings. It is a school that offers tools to empower young musical innovators in carving out unique and individualized career pathways— including ones that may not have existed before—in our unpredictable and rapidly changing professional milieu. A great school of music is one that adapts flexibly to emerging forms of distribution and information sharing and to changes in what may be considered fundamental for music learning. It is a school that nurtures the tenacity new artistic visions may demand, the will to challenge society’s definitions and presumptions when necessary, and the perseverance required for young artists to manifest the profound
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gifts they may offer to their evolving cultures. A great school of music is one that embraces an evolving world for its rich possibilities, its new opportunities. The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts offers a dynamic learning environment optimized for informed, creative musicmakers. Students are fully immersed at the front lines of their chosen fields, where they can recognize clearly what they need to learn—and why—in order to become effective contributors to those fields. Creative music today can draw inspiration from any and all fields of earlier musical development. This open cross-pollination of influences has given rise to a dense, lush macrocosm of original sound: a fertile terrain in which to create and re-create anew.
MUSIC
Our school is especially attuned to the fact that young practitioners, regardless of their individual stylistic trajectories, must now master a wide range of musical literature and theories, both traditional and new, and a very broad range of practical skills. Most importantly, they must become resourceful and self-reliant practitioners— fast learners who are able to survive on the cutting edge while surfing trends with critical acuity and working within a spectrum of spec ulative ideas. Now more than ever, young artists must aim for the highest levels of versatility in order to lay the groundwork for future success: They need the ability to move among musical cultures and styles and, increasingly, instruments and media; to work in a variety of interdisciplinary situations; and to develop advanced writing, speaking, playing, teaching, technological, and creative skills. Our programs are designed expressly for such artists, helping them to cultivate a far-ranging musical acumen while at the same time providing specialized training best suited for meeting each student’s specific goals. Moreover, our programs focus on the development of intellectual and critical abilities so that each artist can best contextualize his or her distinctive work within broader aesthetic and cultural settings—and effectively project that work out into the world.
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Our community of musicmakers represents the highest standards in musical knowledge, skill, creativity, resourcefulness, strong individual initiative, and tenacity. These qualities also spell out the formula for the success of our students: the composers, performers and producers who will shape the global musical landscape of tomorrow.
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> music.calarts.edu
a. School of Theater actress Dana Gourrier in a rehearsal for ah! opera–no opera, a collectively developed interactive opera coproduced by The Herb Alpert School of Music and the CalArts Center for New Performance. This ambitious multimedia work received its world premiere at redcat. b. mfa jazz guitarist John Storie. c. Undergrad Leila Navon of the Program in Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence and Design.
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d. Renowned Ghanaian drummer and dancer Sulley Imoro (center) performs with the CalArts African Music and Dance Ensemble at the 2012 edition of the school’s annual World Music and Dance Festival. Imoro is flanked by faculty member Andrew Grueschow (left) and undergrad Justin Bardales.
PERFORMERCOMPOSER
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P ROGRAM
Upper-division bfa, two-year mfa, three-year doctor of musical arts
MUSIC
This uniquely structured program calls on advanced artists to fuse technical performance virtuosity and innovative compositional models into a single continuum of creative music in the course of developing original and distinctive bodies of work. Designed for students who are already accomplished composers and expert players, the program is not a double major; each area depends on the other to be fully realized. This course of study is intensive but also highly individualized, tailored to the creative interests of each student rather promoting any particular style or direction. First-year bfa and transfer applicants interested in the PerformerComposer Program are required to apply to the Composition Program or one of the Programs in Performance; bfa students may join this program only in their third or fourth years.
COMPOSITION
P ROGRAM
Four-year bfa, two-year mfa
Nationally and internationally renowned for its contributions to contemporary music, the Composition Program facilitates the development of students’ artistic voices through mastery of a broad range of theories, techniques and creative tools. In recognition of the expanded stylistic breadth of music today, the program supports the acquisition of skills and engagement with ideas that will empower each composition student to build and sustain his or her own profile as an innovative creative artist. With a Specialization available in: Experimental Sound Practices mfa level only
JAZZ PROGRAM Four-year bfa, two-year mfa
The Jazz Program is internationally recognized for its distinguished faculty, professionally successful alumni, and award-winning students. Emphasizing small ensembles, this challenging program helps students develop into highly versatile performers, improvisers and composers who are able to successfully initiate and produce works informed by various jazz styles, often in combination with other musical traditions and the latest innovations in contemporary musicmaking.
P ROGRAMS IN
PERFORMANCE
The Programs in Performance prepare gifted music performers for an ever-broadening panorama of professional practices and career pathways. Students in these programs closely study musical forms from many different eras and traditions, as well as performance techniques ranging from the classical to emerging contemporary expressions. With extensive performing opportunities in both solo recitals and concerts by ensembles of varying configuration, each performer develops and refines high-level skills in his or her area of specialty, a breadth of musical knowledge, and the creative versatility and resourcefulness to excel in any number of professional settings.
WINDS PROGRAM four-year bfa, two-year mfa
BRASS PROGRAM four-year bfa, two-year mfa
P ERCUSSION PROGRAM four-year bfa, two-year mfa
GUITAR PROGRAM four-year bfa, two-year mfa
HARP PROGRAM four-year bfa, two-year mfa
PIANO/KEYBOARD PROGRAM four-year bfa, two-year mfa
With a Specialization available in: Collaborative Keyboard mfa level only
Interaction, Intelligence and Design Four-year bfa, two-year mfa
STRINGS PROGRAM four-year bfa, two-year mfa
VOICE PROGRAM four-year bfa, two-year mfa
See detailed program descriptions at music.calarts.edu/ programs
To apply to any of the programs offered by The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, go to calarts.edu/apply All application, audition and portfolio instructions are listed on the CalArts application web page.
aFRICAN MUSIC AND DANCE PROGRAM two-year mfa only
B ALINESE AND JAVANESE MUSIC AND DANCE PROGRAM two-year mfa only
This one-of-a-kind program joins the development of strong musical skills with mastering the most recent advances in music-related systems design and engineering. Focusing on the creative as much as the technical, the theoretical as much as the practical, the highly interdisciplinary curriculum prepares students for careers in electronic composition and performance, sound design and synthesis, audio recording, post-production, web and multimedia design, audio electronics, software development, interactive audio for gaming, and electro-mechanical design, among other fields.
MUSICAL aRTS
nORTH INDIAN MUSIC PROGRAM
P ROGRAM
Four-year bfa only
two-year mfa only
WORLD MUSIC PROGRAM four-year bfa only
WORLD PERCUSSION PROGRAM two-year mfa only
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The Musical Arts Program is designed for undergraduates whose diverse creative interests and multiple musical talents warrant individualized studies. Students in this program hone strong and comprehensive musical articulation skills as they explore a wide variety of artistic syntheses and career pathways, covering work in pedagogical, performance-composition, production, technical, and interdisciplinary settings. Building on the school’s bfa Music Core Curriculum as a foun dation, each student’s course of study is custombuilt with the guidance of his or her faculty mentor.
Concentration in Integrated Media The school’s mfa programs offer a supplemental concentration, via the institute-wide Center for Integrated Media (cim), for advanced students who wish to combine music with an exploration of interdisciplinary practices, participatory media, and interactive technologies. a. The CalArts experimental trio Dark Fare performs at the pact Zollverein arts center in Essen, Germany, during the 2011 Ruhr Triennial festival. b. mfa tabla player Javad Butah of the North Indian Music Program. c. Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, a performer-composer and integrated media major, live-processing at The Wild Beast.
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Current course listings are available at courses.calarts.edu
MUSIC TECHNOLOGY P ROGRAM IN
a
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a. Contemplating a tangle of wires. b. The Wild Beast indoor-outdoor music pavilion was inaugurated in 2010. c. Legendary Los Angeles performance poet Kamau Daåood speaks at faculty member Vinny Golia’s PerformerComposer Forum. d. The cover of the 2010 CalArts Jazz CD. Since 1990, emi Music has funded an annual recording of original music by students in the Jazz Program. The recording sessions take place at the famous Capitol Studios in Hollywood. e. Music students collaborate regularly with their counterparts in other CalArts schools, in this case performing in a graduate thesis film.
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Faculty
a
Many members of the faculty give instruction in several programs as well as in the bfa Music Core Curriculum. The listing below, organized by program, indicates each faculty member’s main areas of specialty. This listing shows faculty for the 2012–2013 academic year.
Administration
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David Rosenboom Richard Seaver Distinguished Chair in Music, Dean
MUSIC
Susan allen Associate Dean for Academic Affairs John Baffa Production Technology Director Jacqueline Bobak Associate Dean for Assessment and Special Projects Roxane Chenault Operations Manager Bob Clendenen Production Manager Julie Feves Associate Dean for Enrollment Management Lauren Pratt Special Assistant to the Dean for Programming and Finance, Associate Producer of Music at redcat Robert Wannamaker Associate Dean for Academic and Special Projects
Performer- Composer David Rosenboom Coordinator, PerformerComposer Program: multidisciplinary composition and performance Wadada Leo Smith trumpet, composition, improvisation, history and literature Vinny Golia composition, improvisation, winds
Ulrich Krieger Michael Colombier Performer-Composer Chair: composition, experimental sound practices, saxophone Additional faculty members are drawn from all programs.
Composition, Experimental Sound Practices Michael Pisaro Roy E. Disney Family Chair in Musical Composition; Co-Chair, Composition Program: composition, experimental sound practices, theory Mark Trayle Co-Chair, Composition Program: composition, experimental sound practices Clay Chaplin Technical Director, Computer Music and Experimental Media Studios: experimental sound practices, composition Michael Jon Fink composition Ulrich Krieger composition, experimental sound practices anne LeBaron composition Sara Roberts experimental sound practices, composition, integrated media, history and literature David Rosenboom composition, experimental sound practices Barry Schrader composition, analysis Wolfgang von Schweinitz composition
Karen Tanaka composition Robert Wannamaker composition, history and literature, theory
Jazz David Roitstein Chair, Jazz Program: piano, arranging Charlie Haden Founder, Jazz Program: bass John Fumo trumpet Vinny Golia composition, improvisation, winds alex Iles trombone alphonso Johnson electric bass Larry Koonse Larry Levine Chair in Contemporary Music: guitar Joe LaBarbera drum set, history and literature Paul novros reeds
Brass Edward Carroll Coordinator, Brass Program: trumpet Robin Graham French horn James Miller trombone Doug Tornquist tuba, euphonium
Percussion David Johnson Coordinator, Percussion Program: percussion amy Knoles percussion, electronic percussion Houman Pourmehdi Persian percussion
Guitar Woody aplanalp guitar Stuart Fox guitar, lute Miroslav TadiC´ guitar
Darek Oles bass
Harp
aAron Serfaty Latin percussion
Susan allen harp
Programs in Performance Winds Julie Feves Director, Programs in Instrumental Performance: bassoon William Powell clarinet, analysis Rachel Rudich Coordinator, Chamber Music: flute, shakuhachi allan Vogel Mel Powell Chair: oboe, history and literature
P iano/Keyboard Vicki Ray Hal Blaine Chair in Musical Performance; Coordinator, Piano/Collaborative Keyboard Program: piano, collaborative keyboard, history and literature Tisha MabeeGoldstein harpsichord, organ, piano Ming Tsu piano
Strings Erika DukeKirkpatrick cello Lorenz Gamma violin
Mark Menzies Programming Advisor, Programs in Performance and redcat: violin, viola, conducting Peter Rofé contrabass
Voice Paul Berkolds Co-coordinator, Voice Program: bass baritone Jacqueline Bobak Co-coordinator, Voice Program: mezzo-soprano Heidi Esslinger German Maria FortunaDean soprano Harmony Jiroudek mezzo-soprano Tali Tadmor vocal coaching, accompaniment
A frican Music a nd Dance andrew Grueschow African music and dance Beatrice Lawluvi African music and dance
Balinese and Javanese Music a nd Dance Djoko Walujo Javanese music and dance nanik Wenten Balinese and Javanese dance I nyoman Wenten Balinese music and dance
North Indian Music Swapan Chaudhuri Chair, World Music Programs: North Indian music, tabla Randy Gloss world percussion
b
aashish Khan Nicholas England Chair: North Indian music, sarod, sitar, voice
ajay Kapur Associate Dean for Research and Development in Digital Arts, Office of the President; Director, Program in Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence and Design: music technology, computer science for artists
Susan allen improvisation, pedagogy, history and literature Kathy Carbone research methodologies
Kristin Erickson composition, improvised musical theater Robert Halvorson theory, voice amy Knoles fundamentals of musicianship andreas Levisianos skills, piano
John Baffa recording, advanced production techniques
Marc Lowenstein skills, theory, history and literature, conducting
Bob Clendenen concert production
Kathy Pisaro history and literature
Jordan Hochenbaum music technology
Houman Pourmehdi Persian ensemble, Persian traditional and regional music
Owen Vallis music technology
M usical Arts Susan allen Coordinator, Musical Arts Program Additional faculty members are drawn from all programs.
Core Curriculum and Other A reas Robert Wannamaker Coordinator, bfa Core Curriculum: composition, theory, history and literature
Faculty bios are online at music.calarts.edu/faculty
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neelamjit Dhillon theory
MUSIC
M usic T echnology
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Jerónimo Rajchenberg fundamentals of musicianship, Mexican music, guitar, composition Paul Vorwerk skills, history and literature, conducting andrea Young skills, voice
a. Audio hardware designer Jim Murphy (right) with visiting performer-composer Doo Jin Park. b. Music tech student Riley Reasor operates a newly restored “Serge” analogue modular synthesizer ahead of a performance by visiting artist Thomas Ankersmit. The Serge was developed at CalArts in the 1970s by former faculty Serge Techerepin. c. The KarmetiK Machine Orchestra, led by Ajay Kapur (center), director of the Program in Music Technology, features an array of originally created live musical interfaces and robotic instruments.
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aLUMNI
of The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts include:
John Luther adams (bfa 73), composer Ralph alessi (mfa 90, bfa 87), jazz trumpeter
Timur Bekbosunov (mfa 08), tenor Mario Calire (93), jazz trumpeter; asdrubal Sierra (94), jazz trumpeter; and Jiro Yamaguchi (bfa 92), multi-percussionist and tabla player Members of Ozomatli James Carney (bfa 90), jazz pianist, composer Gary Chang (mfa 77), film composer
Sam Minaie (mfa 08), jazz bassist
Ravi Coltrane (bfa 90), jazz saxophonist, composer, bandleader
anna Oxygen (mfa 08), multimedia artist, composer, performer
Mark Coniglio (bfa 89), composer, multimedia artist, co-director of Troika Ranch
Daniel Rosenboom (mfa 07), trumpeter, composer
John Debney (bfa 78), film composer
Marina Rosenfeld (Music–Art mfa 94), composer, sound and installation artist
Peter Epstein (bfa 92), saxophonist, composer, educator
Rand Steiger (mfa 82), composer, conductor, educator
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april Guthrie (mfa 06), cellist
Carl Stone (bfa 75), composer, computer music artist
MUSIC
b
Matt Barbier (mfa 10), trombonist; archie Carey (mfa 11), bassoonist, composer; Chris Kallmyer (mfa 09), composer, multiinstrumentalist, sound artist, curator; andrew McIntosh (mfa 08), violinist, composer; Melinda Rice (mfa 06), violinist, violist; Derek Stein (mfa 10), cellist; andrew Tholl (dma 12), multi-instrumentalist, composer; Richard Valitutto (mfa 11), pianist; Brian Walsh (mfa 08, bfa 06), clarinetist; and ashley Walters (mfa 07), cellist Members of Wild Up
Eric km Clark (mfa 06), violinist
Danny Holt (mfa 06), pianist Julia Holter (mfa 09), singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Kai Kurosawa (mfa 05), guitarist ani Maldjian (bfa 04), soprano John Maus (bfa 03), composer, keyboardist Devin Maxwell (mfa 02) and Katie Porter (mfa 02), wireless media content developers Founders of LoudLouderLoudest Dylan McKenzie (bfa 08), jazz guitarist; Jonathan Schwarz (bfa 09), jazz bassist; and Matthias Wagner (bfa 10), jazz drummer Members of Derde Verde
Robin Sukhadia (mfa 07), tabla player, educator Gavin Templeton (mfa 08), jazz saxophonist Kubilay Üner (acrt 91), film composer, multi-instrumentalist, instrument builder Vahagni (mfa 11), guitarist, composer Libby Van Cleve (mfa 84), oboist, author Jack Vees (mfa 86), composer, bassist Lois V Vierk (mfa 78), composer nedra Wheeler (bfa 87, mfa 89), bassist, educator Mike Winter (mfa 05), composer Philip Yampolsky (mfa 72), ethnomusicologist Marcelo Zarvos (bfa 92), pianist, composer
See music.calarts.edu/ alumni
a. mfa student Alessandra Barrett performs John Cage’s Theater Piece at redcat. b. An improvisation with “instruments” made from yarn.
a. Harley Ware in a production of Max Frisch’s The Firebugs directed by mfa candidate Deena Selenow. Costume design by Asta Hostetter; lighting design by Eric Baum. b. The set for Trailer Trash (Coffee with a Nomad), a performance by alumnus Sam Breen at the pact Zollverein arts center in Germany, also served as an installation. Design by Breen and Head of Technical Direction Michael Darling. c. Matthew Bamberg-Johnson in Bertolt Brecht’s In the Jungle of Cities, directed by then-guest artist, now-faculty Bart DeLorenzo. d. Genevieve Gearhart in Henry Purcell’s opera The Fairy Queen, a co-production of the School of Theater and The Herb Alpert School of Music. Directed by Julianne Just.
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THEATER
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School of
t hEAt E r
THEATER
Dean’s Introduction — Travis Preston
As one of the preeminent theater training programs in the country, the CalArts School of Theater is dedicated to the development of new voices and new forms. The training we provide is designed to educate the whole person and to prepare fully equipped theater artists to enter and transform the field. D
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We place particular emphasis on building professional experiences and relationships while in school, seeking every opportunity for our students to create effective careers after graduation. The CalArts Center for New Performance, the Institute’s professional producing arm, embodies our firm commitment to open exactly such possibilities for talented, ambitious students. Our educational mission is to forge a community of citizen artists who are rigorously trained in their respective métiers and who are concomitantly able to work effectively and innovatively across a broad spectrum of artistic settings, media and technologies. As the practical conditions for theater artists continue to evolve, our training gives students the flexibility, skill and ingenuity to navigate a rapidly changing environment and to pursue their dreams with maximum agency. Since the school is based in Los Angeles, the epicenter of film and media production, all our programs give considerable attention to students having the versatility to succeed in a variety of media.
The school’s Programs in Performance include courses of study in acting, directing, and writing for performance; Programs in Design and Production comprise scene, costume, lighting and sound design, technical direction, and management. Within the Programs in Design and Production are further specializations in producing, production man agement, stage management, scene painting, and video for performance.
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We are further shaping a series of courses to address the development and design of immersive environments and themed entertainment. Through relationships with Walt Disney Imagineering, On Track Entertainment, Universal Studios, and rgh Entertainment, the school is encouraging students to navigate an increasingly exciting landscape of theatrical experience. All of these disciplines interact continuously as the School of Theater presents an extensive series of productions each year: full-scale works staged in connection with the curriculum, original projects developed and produced in collaboration with internationally renowned artists and organizations, and an annual student-driven New Works Festival. Our five theater spaces—
the architecturally unique Walt Disney Modular Theater and four black-box theaters—often run productions simultaneously. We also make use of other on- and off-campus sites and venues, both conventional and unconventional.
The CalArts School of Theater is a singular place—unlike anywhere else in the world in the passionate and mindful pursuit of mission and, equally, in the support of the individual aesthetics, dreams and professional aspirations of our students.
b. Sil Park in a costume design class.
d. Alumnus Lars Jan, a directing and integrated media major, and his company Early Morning Opera premiered the multimedia stage work Abacus at empac in Troy, ny. Abacus was later presented at redcat. e. The Firebugs by Max Frisch. f. Emma Zakes Green (left), Ahlam Hannan Khamis (center) and Kaiso Hill in a workshop production of Naomi Wallace’s The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek. Directed by LisaGay Hamilton.
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The CalArts Center for New Performance has a unique role in furthering our community’s relationship to the wider professional world. Established as a forum for the creation of groundbreaking performance, the cnp allows students to work shoulder to shoulder with artists of the highest caliber. This collaborative work is distinctive and extends beyond the curriculum, offering a depth and breadth of research, practice and professional experience that far surpasses a conventional academic approach.
a. A workshop with visiting singer, songwriter and playwright Stew. c. Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms, directed by Zoe Aja Moore. Scene design by Liz Toonkel; technical direction by Benjamin Womick.
> theater.calarts.edu
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DESIGN AND PRODUCTION
PERFORMANCE
P ROGRAMS IN
aCTING PROGRAM Four-year bfa, three-year mfa
Capitalizing on Los Angeles as a global hub for media and creative professionals, these interrelated, multidisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs offer intensive professional instruction in the arts of scene, costume, lighting and sound design, as well as in technical direction and management. Also included are a number of more narrowly focused specializations, ranging from video for performance to producing. These individual disciplines are finding new and rewarding expressions in various global media markets, immersive environments, and innovative live performances.
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Providing comprehensive training for talented actors and theater artists, the CalArts Acting Program moves beyond repertory theater instruction and looks to the wider challenges of performance practice in the 21st century. Students learn to closely study text, understand acting methodologies and modern stage craft, and develop mind, emotion, body and voice as effective instruments of performance—so that actors can become versatile, well-rounded, resourceful artists who have the skills and knowledge to chart their own creative and professional paths. With Los Angeles as a center of world media production, the Acting Program is especially attuned to new technologies and forms: the scope of the program’s rigorous training incorporates not only acting for the camera, but also performance for interactive media and immersive environments.
DIRECTING PROGRAM Three-year mfa only Dedicated to artistic experimentation and innovation, this selective, rigorous graduate program prepares already experienced directors to put forward a personal vision for the theater and redefine the boundaries of performance. Studies in the program, tailored to each student’s artistic interests, are first and foremost rooted in intensive practical experience. In addition to addressing the full spectrum of the dramatic canon, the Directing Program is unique in that it recognizes the growing importance of work generated by directors. It also pays significant attention to film aesthetics and practice and their applications in emerging media.
WRITING FOR P ERFORMANCE PROGRAM Three-year mfa only This demanding graduate program facilitates the development of original voices in writing for stage, screen and other performance media. Designed for writers with significant prior experience, the program especially encourages an evolutionary conception of theater as a tool for social critique and activism; it also embraces new collaborative forms and unconventional means of generating texts. Students in the program are expected to build a substantial body of work during their three-year residencies.
Sequential in structure, the curricula consist of classroom study and hands-on production, allowing students to acquire broad aesthetic knowledge and practical technique. Students also develop professional-caliber portfolios required for careers in theater, film and other directions in art and entertainment. All first-year bfa Design and Production students complete a year of general foundation studies before they concentrate their work in one or more individual programs. bfa transfer and mfa applicants, however, are asked to choose an individual program when applying to CalArts.
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a. Ernie Long (playing guitar) in Marieluise Fleißer’s Purgatory in Ingolstadt, directed by Marina McClure. Scene design by Drew Foster; costume design by Kate Friedberg; lighting design by Anna Martin. b. Kalean Ung in Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, directed by Julianne Just. Lighting design by Adam Frank; costume design by Jenny Foldenhauer.
Four-year bfa, three-year mfa
With Specializations available in: Scene Painting mfa level only Video for Performance mfa level only
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COSTUME DESIGN PROGRAM Four-year bfa, three-year mfa
c. Margery and Me, conceived and directed by Moira MacDonald. Puppetry by MacDonald.
LIGHTING DESIGN PROGRAM Four-year bfa, three-year mfa
d. Rehearsals for Timboctou, written by Alejandro Ricaño and directed by guest artist Martín Acosta, ahead of performances at redcat. The bilingual work was presented by the CalArts Center for New Performance with the bilingual theater initiative Duende CalArts and the University of Guadalajara Foundation/Cultura udg.
SOUND DESIGN PROGRAM Four-year bfa, three-year mfa
T ECHNICAL DIRECTION PROGRAM b
MANAGEMENT PROGRAM Four-year bfa, three-year mfa
With Specializations available in: Producing mfa level only Production Management mfa level only Stage Management bfa and mfa levels
Concentration in Integrated Media The School of Theater’s mfa programs offer a supplemental concentration, via the institute-wide Center for Integrated Media (cim), for students who wish to combine work in theater with an exploration of interdisciplinary practices, participatory media, and interactive technologies. See detailed program descriptions at theater.calarts.edu/programs Current course listings are available at courses.calarts.edu
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To apply to any of the programs offered by the School of Theater, go to calarts.edu/apply All application, audition and portfolio instructions are listed on the CalArts application web page.
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Four-year bfa, three-year mfa
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Faculty Faculty bios are online at theater.calarts.edu/faculty Phil allen sound design
Martha Ferrara costume design
Camilo alvarez technical direction
Peter Flaherty Director of Video for Performance
Mark anderson lighting anthony armatrading acting Dwight Bacquie voice/speech Christopher Barreca Head of Scene Design Craig Belknap acting Fran Bennett voice Carol Bixler Head of Producing; Producing Director, School of Theater; Producing Director, CalArts Center for New Performance Marissa Chibas acting Lap-Chi Chu lighting design Drew Dalzell sound design Michael Darling Head of Technical Direction Efren Delgadillo design, vectorworks Bart DeLorenzo theater history
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Paul DiPietro Associate Technical Director Heather Ehlers movement
nataki Garrett Associate Dean; Co-Head of bfa Acting Janie Geiser puppetry, multidisciplinary performance Kevin Goold sound design Jade Gordon performance tactics Jon Gottlieb Head of Sound Design Jenny Greer speech Mary Heilman Head of Scene Painting Mona Heinze dramaturgy Lars Jan acting Mirjana Jokovic Director of Performance; Head of mfa Acting Gary Kechely Associate Dean; Production Manager; Head of Production Management Mira Kingsley directing, dance theater Lewis Klahr directing, screen writing, film
Tina Kronis movement andrea LeBlanc acting Tanya Lee costume design Rafael Lopez-Barrantes Associate Head of mfa Acting: voice Babette Markus movement Ellen McCartney Director of Design and Production; Head of Costume Design; Robert Corrigan Chair in Theater James McDermott stage management Charles McNulty theater history anne Militello Head of Lighting Design
a. Visiting artist Franco Dragone from DreamWorks demonstrates 3-d projections in the Walt Disney Modular Theater. b. Jean Genet’s A Splendid Death, directed by alumna Maureen Huskey. Scene design by Evi Ellias; costume design by Amanda Lee; lighting design by Ryan Bona; scenic art by Caity Watson. c. mfa Costume designer Kate Friedberg. d. Theater Dean Travis Preston (center) and Music Dean David Rosenboom (left) were part of a CalArts contingent of more than 30 students, alumni and faculty that traveled to the pact Zollverein arts center in Germany to take part in the 2011 Ruhr Triennial festival.
Pablo Molina video design Lewis Palter acting
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Karen Potter costume design Travis Preston Dean, School of Theater; Head of Directing; Artistic Director, CalArts Center for New Performance Steve Rankin stage combat Jon Reiss acting for the camera Chantal Rodriquez dramaturgy Mary Lou Rosato Co-Head of bfa Acting
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Michael Sakamoto movement Shannon Scrofano scene design, theater history Evelyn Serrano arts and activism John Sherwood Facilities Coordinator: design technology Susan Simpson puppetry adam Smith voice Michael Smith scene design Roger Guenveur Smith acting Susan Solt film producing, management Stacy Stearns movement Leslie Tamaribuchi Director of Financial Aid and Advancement; Managing Director, CalArts Center for New Performance: producing Sherry Tschernisch T’ai Chi Ch’uan alice Tuan Head of Writing for Performance Marvin Tunney movement Ben White technical direction Denise Woods voice/speech Chi-wang Yang video design, theater history, integrated media Stephanie Young Assistant Dean; Head of Management; General Manager
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a. Emily Faris in Marina McClure’s staging of Purgatory in Ingolstadt by Marieluise Fleißer. Costume design by Kate Friedberg.
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b. School of Music soprano Arielle Deem in Henry Purcell’s opera The Fairy Queen, co-produced by the School of Theater and The Herb Alpert School of Music—which collaborate on an opera project each year. Directed by Julianne Just; scene design by Christopher Heilman; costume design by Sil Park; lighting design by Shelly Rodriguez. c. Margery and Me, directed by Moira MacDonald. Scene design by Prerna Chawla; lighting design by Maura Reinhart.
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d. Alumna Christine Marie—shadow theater artist, director, inventor, and a 2012 Technology Entertainment Design (ted) Fellow—provided the visuals for Mark Z. Danielewski’s stage adaptation of his novella The Fifty Year Sword at redcat.
aLUMNI
of The School of Theater include:
Programs in Performance Hugo armstrong (bfa 98), Ovation Award-winning stage actor (Land of the Tigers, Bleed Rail, Waiting for Godot)
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Terence McFarland (mfa 03), executive director of L.A. Stage Alliance Emily Mendelsohn (mfa 09), director, Fulbright Fellow Katherine Noon (mfa 90), artistic director of the Ghost Road Company Beata Pilch (mfa 93), artistic director of Trap Door Theatre
Matt august (mfa 97), director (Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Liberty Smith)
Condola Rashad (bfa 09), Tony Award-nominated stage and screen actor (Stick Fly, Lynn Nottage’s Ruined)
Elaine avila (mfa 04), Robert Hartung Endowed Chair of Dramatic Writing, University of New Mexico
Paul Reubens (73), actor, creator of Pee-wee’s Playhouse
Cameron Bancroft (bfa 90), screen actor (24)
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Jesse Borrego (84), screen actor (Dexter, 24) alison Brie (bfa 05), screen actor (Community, Mad Men) Shaughn Bucholtz (bfa 02), screen actor (Scrubs)
Poor Dog Group, experimental theater collective amy Keating Rogers (mfa 94), television writer (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, The Powerpuff Girls) Douglas Rushkoff (mfa 86), public intellectual, author, documentarian Katey Sagal (72), Golden Globewinning actress (Sons of Anarchy, Married with Children)
Don Cheadle (bfa 86), Golden Globe-winning and Academy Awardnominated actor (Hotel Rwanda, Crash, House of Lies)
Catherine Sullivan (bfa 92), Alpert Award-winning artist, director and filmmaker
Eliza Coupe (bfa 05), stage and screen actor (Happy Endings, Scrubs)
amy Tofte (mfa 11), playwright (FleshEatingTiger)
Jennifer Elise Cox (bfa 91), screen actor (10 Items or Less, Love spring International, Six Feet Under)
Derek Webster (bfa 93), screen actor (Mental, Grey’s Anatomy)
Michael Cudlitz (bfa 90), screen actor (Band of Brothers, Southland) Mandy Freund (bfa 00), stage and screen actor (Menagerie, She Stoops to Comedy) nataki Garrett (mfa 02), co-artistic director of Blank-the-Dog Productions
Michole Briana White (91), Obie Award-winning actor (Jitney, Stick Fly) Simbi Khali Williams (bfa 93), screen actor (Mississippi Damned) Chi-wang Yang (Theater–Integrated Media mfa 07), director (Vineland Stelae), digital artist, co-founder of Cloud Eye Control
Virginia Grise (mfa 09), Yale Drama Series-winning playwright (blu)
Programs in Design and Production
Ed Harris (bfa 75), Golden Globewinning and Academy Award-nominated actor (The Truman Show, The Hours), director (Pollock)
Kevin adams (mfa 86), Tony and Obie Award-winning lighting and scene designer (The 39 Steps, Spring Awakening)
David Hasselhoff (73), “The Hoff,” actor (Baywatch), singer Bill Irwin (72), vaudeville artist, actor, director, playwright, MacArthur Fellow Lars Jan (Theater–Integrated Media mfa 08), director, media artist, founder of Early Morning Opera (Abacus), Technology Entertainment Design (ted) Global Fellow, winner of the Richard E. Sherwood Award Jessica Kubzansky (mfa 94), co-artistic director of The Theatre @ Boston Court alan Loayza (bfa 00), stage and screen actor (Peach Blossom Fan, Gilmore Girls, web series Gold) Debi Manwiller (bfa 83), casting director
Chad Bauman (mfa 03), associate executive director, Arena Stage Garth Belcon (bfa 94), producer (Whiteboyz) Martyn Bookwalter (mfa 77), stage and television lighting designer, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award winner Fontella Boone (mfa 91), costume designer (Snipes) Kevin Dunayer (mfa 90), sound designer and engineer Dan Friedman (mfa 03), producing director of Greenway Arts Alliance Brian Garber (mfa 04), technical director of New York Theatre Workshop, production manager (Elevator Repair Service’s The Sound and the Fury)
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Ian Garrett (mfa 08), Richard A. Sherwood Award-winning producer and lighting designer Barbara Inglehart (mfa 86), costume designer, co-author of Shopping L.A.: The Insider’s Sourcebook for Film & Fashion Jeff Kleeman (bfa 87), technical director of Los Angeles Opera Peter Ksander (mfa 01), Obie Award-winning scene designer (Untitled Mars [This Title May Change]) Brian Lilienthal (mfa 03), resident lighting designer of Trinity Rep, Ovation Award winner Etta Lilienthal (mfa 99, bfa 97), scene designer Christine Marie (Theater–Integrated Media mfa 09), shadow theater artist (Ground to Cloud), director, inventor, Technology Entertainment Design (ted) Fellow Jamie McElhinney (mfa 03), sound designer (The Success of Failure), technical director (The Builders Association) David Mickelsen (mfa 83), costume designer (Denver Center Theatre Company, the Cincinnati Playhouse) Don Miller (mfa 72), film producer (White Men Can’t Jump) Marco Morante (bfa 02), fashion and stage costume designer (Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Shakira) Laura Mroczkowski (mfa 02), lighting designer (The Builders Association), co-artistic director, Blank-the-Dog Productions Cricket S. Myers (mfa 03), Drama Desk Award-winning sound designer (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) Darcy Scanlin (mfa 00), awardwinning production designer for stage and screen Qadriyyah Shamsid-Deen (Theater mfa 09–Film/Video mfa 10), documentary filmmaker, Fulbright Fellow Leon Rothenberg (mfa 02), Tony Award-winning sound designer (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone) Laura Swanson (Theater–Music mfa 11), co-founder of The Industry; producer (Crescent City) Justin Townsend (mfa 03), lighting and scene designer (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt (bfa 01), production coordinator, Center Theatre Group Miranda Wright (mfa 09), producer (The Closest Is Farthest Away [Los Angeles/Havana], Cooking Oil [National Theater of Uganda]). Laura Youngkin (mfa 10), producer/imagineer, Walt Disney Imagineering
See theater.calarts.edu/alumni
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a. bfa actor Emily Faris during a class exercise. b. Jenny Greer (left) and Brendan McGowan in Zoe Aja Moore’s staging of Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms.
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Cap
Cnp
REDCAT
COMMUNITY aRTS PARTNERSHIP (cap) Linking CalArts with scores of community organizations, social service agencies and public schools throughout Los Angeles County, the award-winning, nationally emulated Community Arts Partnership offers free arts education programs for underserved youth between the ages of 6 and 18. Since cap’s founding in 1990, more than 250,000 elementary, middle and high school students have received quality arts instruction through its programs. With the goal of opening pathways to college and pointing the way to future creative careers, cap’s programs are designed and taught by CalArts faculty, alumni, and current students. cap provides CalArts student instructors with pedagogical training, substantive teaching experience, and a source of income while in school. cap students who go on to be accepted by CalArts after completing high school are eligible for cap scholarships. calarts.edu/cap
Calarts CENTER FOR NEW PERFORMANCE (Cnp) The CalArts Center for New Performance is the Institute’s professional producing arm, established to provide a unique artist- and project-driven framework for the development and realization of original theater, music, dance, and interdisciplinary projects. Extending the progressive work carried out at CalArts into a direct dialogue with professional communities at the local, national and international levels, cnp offers an alternative model to support emerging directions in the performing arts. It also enables CalArts students to work shoulder to shoulder with celebrated artists and acquire a level of experience that goes beyond their respective curricula. cnp guest artists have included directors Martín Acosta, Richard Foreman, Robert Cantarella and Chen Shi-Zheng, composers Vinny Golia and Stephin Merritt, and actor Stephen Dillane, among others. Current cnp projects include Timboctou, a bilingual production with a creative ensemble from CalArts and Mexico, written by emerging Mexican playwright Alejandro Recaño and directed by Acosta. Timboctou received its world premiere at redcat in 2012 and was later performed in Guadalajara, with ad ditional performances slated for Mexico City and South America. cnp is also partnering with the Getty Villa to produce a new translation of Prometheus Bound in the fall of 2013 at the Villa’s famous outdoor amphitheater. calarts.edu/cnp
Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) Opened in 2003, redcat is CalArts’ downtown Los Angeles center for the presentation of innovative contemporary arts. Housing a performance space and an art gallery in the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall complex (home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic), this state-of-the-art professional venue has become an indispensable fixture of the city’s cultural landscape—“the gold standard for the avant-garde in l.a.,” according to The Huffington Post. redcat delivers an extensive range of curated programs that include art, music, theater, dance, film, multimedia, interdisciplinary performance, readings, symposia, and other unique cultural presentations. This programming is drawn from a mix of celebrated artists and companies from around the world, emerging local voices, and original works developed at CalArts. Many of the nationally and internationally recognized artists who present work at redcat also visit the Valencia campus to engage with students in workshops, master classes and one-one meetings, adding to the breadth and scope of the CalArts educational experience. redcat.org
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aPPLY TO CALaRTS
aCCREDITATION
CalArts welcomes applications for admission from any individual engaged in the visual, performing, media or literary arts. The main criterion for admission is artistic merit, as assessed by the faculty of the individual programs. Other important considerations include school records, recommendations and an artist’s statement by the applicant.
California Institute of the Arts is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (wasc). CalArts is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (nasad), the National Association of Schools of Dance (nasd), the National Association of Schools of Music (nasm), and the National Association of Schools of Theatre (nast).
The respective programs ask applicants to demonstrate their artistic abilities and levels of training in their chosen fields through portfolio submissions, live auditions, and any other relevant evidence of creative achievement and promise. All applicants are required to submit a completed CalArts Application for Admission, the application fee, transcripts, two letters of recommendation and an artist’s statement prior to the review of their work.
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See wascsenior.org to learn more about the wasc accrediting process. For information about nasad, nasd, nasm and nast, see arts-accredit.org To view all CalArts consumer information—including our NonDiscrimination Policy—go to calarts.edu/consumer-information
All application, portfolio and audition instructions are listed at calarts.edu/apply Applicants cannot be accepted into undergraduate programs unless they have obtained a high school diploma or an equivalent or are working toward a diploma or equivalent. Those applying to graduate programs cannot be admitted to CalArts unless they have earned an undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited institution or are working toward such a degree. Applicants to the Doctor of Musical Arts (dma) PerformerComposer Program cannot be accepted unless they hold a master’s degree or are working toward one. All accepted students must obtain the relevant diploma or degree before they can enroll at CalArts.
Financial aid The Office of Financial Aid helps students to meet the costs of a CalArts education. All applicants to CalArts automatically receive materials on the financial aid process and its requirements, as well as additional information on grants, scholarships, loans, work-study programs and other forms of aid. The Office of Financial Aid subsequently makes offers of aid to accepted students on the basis of eligibility and financial need. calarts.edu/financialaid | 661 253-7869 or 800 443-0480.
VISIT CALaRTS The Office of Admissions invites prospective applicants and their families to visit our campus in person to experience the full range of activity on campus—to see how CalArts works. Concerts, gallery exhibitions, film screenings, theater and dance performances, readings, lectures and other events are open to the public. Tours and information sessions are scheduled throughout the year. To schedule a visit, please contact the Office of Admissions.
661 255-1050 or 800 545-arts | admissions@calarts.edu calarts.edu/visit
Published by the Calarts Office of Enrollment Management Audrey Tanner Associate Provost of Enrollment Management Molly Ryan Director of Admissions Claire Joy Director of Recruitment Editorial: Freddie Sharmini & Stuart I. Frolick Photography: Scott Groller & Steven A. Gunther Art Direction: Joseph Prichard (Art mfa 08) Design: Joseph Prichard & Roman Jaster (Art bfa 07) Design Assistance: Armando Martinez-Celis (Art bfa 13) Production Assistance: Nicole Jaffe & Cassandra Chae (Art mfa 07) Typefaces include: Switch, Spektro Roman, Spektro Gothic & Spektro Slab by Andrea Tinnes (Art mfa 98) Printed by: Typecraft, Wood & Jones, Pasadena, California
California Institute of the Arts 24700 McBean Parkway Valencia, CA 91355–2340
Office of Admissions 661 255-1050 or 800 545-arts (toll free)
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