A crowd of people at CCA's end-of-year Design and Architecture Show.

Academics

Our academic programs support creative practitioners who strive for a world that’s brighter, more inclusive, relentlessly innovative, and ecologically resilient.

On this page

Overview

Learn how CCA makes an impact in the Bay Area and beyond

Pursue your passions at California College of the Arts, where diverse practices meet and inspiration is at every turn. With access to the Bay Area’s creative communities and thriving industries, you’ll take part in exciting collaborations, deepen your practice, and learn from art and design leaders, including our renowned faculty. You’ll learn to make work that makes a difference.

Attending CCA is your time to discover your voice, listen to other voices, refine your skills, or completely reinvent yourself.

Core disciplines

Architecture

Connect theoretical speculation and material innovation with experimental design methods in our four academic programs and four research labs.

Design the future

Design

Develop the skills to imagine and create new kinds of objects, images, systems, and interactions that contribute meaningfully to our world.

Join the leading edge

Fine Arts

Find your voice, identify your audience, and make your mark in the expansive worlds of contemporary art, craft, and digital media.

Love what you make and do

Humanities & Sciences

Explore critical thinking as a creative act and advance cultural engagement through research, studio work, and writing.

Forge meaningful connections

Undergraduate

Discover unique undergraduate experiences and learn about curricula, creative spaces, student accomplishments, and career outcomes

Explore the first year experience

Degree programs

CCA animation students during movement class.

BFA

Animation

One student points up at a wall of Architectural illustrations, three students look on.

BArch

Architecture

Workshop with Thorina Rose at CCA's Memoir Comics Studio.

BFA

Comics

Graphic design

BFA

Communication Design

CCA's Fashion Design students presenting in the annual Fashion Experience showcase.

BFA

Fashion Design

BFA Film student shooting takes in the green screen film cage

BFA

Film

A close-up view of a board game with colorful pieces.

BFA

Game Arts & Design

Feature 1-up for showcase 2022.

BA

History of Art & Visual Culture

Free the data project - Aaron De La Cruz - Illustration, 2004 (hero image)

BFA

Illustration

A person practices balancing on a wooden board mounted on a curved base, simulating a snowboarding experience indoors.

BFA

Industrial Design

A close-up photo of a hand moving game pieces over a digital board illuminated from below.

BFA

Interaction Design

Feature 1-up for showcase 2022.

BFA

Interdisciplinary

A close up of an interior design students project.

BFA

Interior Design

Curtis Arima - studio_andrialo - Study with acclaimed artists

BFA

Jewelry & Metal Arts

Painting and Drawing student holding up a sketch in front of their finished painting

BFA

Painting & Drawing

In class, a BFA Photography student directs a photoshoot using a film camera

BFA

Photography

Writing Room entrance at the 2019 Commencement Exhibition

BA

Writing & Literature

Craft and technology concentrations

Person's hands hovering protectively over an electronic art installation featuring a circular stone or ceramic disc connected to Arduino microcontrollers and sensors on a wooden table.

BFA Interdisciplinary

Craft & Creative Technologies

Ceramics students working in the CCA Ceramics Studio

BFA Interdisciplinary

Ceramics

A student uses a wood filing tool on the base structure of a chair.

BFA Interdisciplinary

Furniture

Students learning how to make silkscreens in the Printmedia studio.

BFA Interdisciplinary

Printmedia

Artist on ladder installing mixed-media art pieces on white gallery wall, including plastic bags with red paint drips and dark sculptural elements.

BFA Interdisciplinary

Sculpture

A student holds red and blue thread near a loom.

BFA Interdisciplinary

Textiles

Minors

Work featured at the CCA Hubbell Street Galleries student exhibition in 2018.

Computational Practices

Engage: mural project class taught by Eduardo Pineda.

Critical Ethnic Studies

ecopoesis event in San Francisco

Ecological Practices

Student displaying their finished furniture piece

Furniture

A group of students stand together, flipping through books.

History of Art & Visual Culture

Writing Student reading at Humble Pie

Writing & Literature

Graduate

Learn about our graduate programs, dual-degree options, and acclaimed alumni and faculty who initiate and lead conversations across diverse fields of practice

A student pins up a comic in an exhibition.

MFA

Comics

Collaborative Music Timeline, project lead Zoey Gassner (BFA Graphic Design 2019), from Decolonization & Design course in 2019.

MFA

Design

Two DMBA students collaborate during a design strategy class.

MBA

Design Strategy

Film class learning about lighting techniques from their professor on the back lot.

MFA

Film

Feature 1-up for showcase 2022.

MFA

Fine Arts

View of desk with laptop, eyeglasses, post-it notes, pens and tablet.

MDes

Interaction Design

Students working together on an architecture building project.

MAAD

Advanced Architectural Design

A student displays the size of a model with their hands.

MArch

Master of Architecture

A student reading at a podium.

MA

Visual & Critical Studies

A student stands at a podium reading to an audience.

MFA

Writing

Challenge yourself to refine, reinvent, or expand your practice. Visit each program’s How to Apply section for essay, portfolio, and resume requirements.

Explore dual-degree options