[3] The school was first envisioned by many benefactors in the early 1960s including Nelbert Chouinard, Walt Disney, Lulu Von Hagen, and Thornton Ladd.

The original board of trustees at CalArts included Nelbert Chouinard, Lulu May Von Hagen, Harrison Price, Royal Clark, Robert W. Corrigan, Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney, film producer Z. Wayne Griffin, H. R. Haldeman, Ralph Hetzel (then vice president of Motion Picture Association of America), Chuck Jones, Ronald Miller, Millard Sheets, attorney Maynard Toll, attorney Luther Reese Marr,[9] bank executive G. Robert Truex Jr., Jerry Wexler, Meredith Willson, Peter McBean and Scott Newhall (descendants of Henry Newhall), Mrs. Roswell Gilpatric, and Mrs. J. L.

The 12 founding board of directors members were Mary Costa, Edith Head, Gale Storm, Marc Davis, Tony Duquette, Harold Grieve, John Hench, Chuck Jones, Henry Mancini, Marty Paich, Nelson Riddle, and Millard Sheets.

[11] Corrigan held his position until 1972, when he was fired and replaced by then board member William S. Lund, Walt Disney's son-in-law, as the Institute approached insolvency.

[12] The period between 1972 and 1975 was extremely unstable financially, and Lund had to make significant operational reductions, including layoffs, the pausing of some degree programs, and the elimination of the School of Design, in order to keep the Institute alive.

Classes were held in rental party tents on the 60 acre grounds, and alternate teaching locations were scattered miles apart around Los Angeles County.

CalArts offers various undergraduate and graduate degrees in programs that are related to and combine music, art, dance, film, animation, theater, and writing.

[16] With these goals in place, the Institute encourages students to recognize the complexity of political, social, and aesthetic questions and to respond to them with informed, independent judgment.

He believed that the same concept that developed WDI could also be applied to a university setting, where art students of different media would be exposed to and explore a wide range of creative directions.

[21] CalArts' notable current and former faculty members include the artists John Baldessari, Judy Chicago, Charles Gaines, Martin Kersels, Thomas Lawson, Miriam Schapiro, and Allan Kaprow.

The faculty in theatre arts has included Fran Bennett, Lee Breuer, Ron Cephas Jones, Lew Palter, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Janie Geiser.

Notable alumni include artists Nayland Blake,[22] Raven Chacon,[23] Eric Fischl, Guillermo Gómez-Peña,[24] Mike Kelley, Matt Mullican, and Catherine Opie.

Notable alumni working in film and television include Tim Burton,[25] Don Cheadle, David Hasselhoff,[26] Paul Reubens,[27] and Katey Sagal.

The institute annually awards a $75,000 no-strings-attached fellowship to five artists in the fields of dance, film and video, music, theatre, and visual arts.

In February 2014, Vanity Fair magazine highlighted the success of CalArts' 1970s animation alumni and briefly profiled several (including Jerry Rees, John Lasseter, Tim Burton, John Musker, Brad Bird, Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Henry Selick and Nancy Beiman) in an article illustrated with a group portrait taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz inside classroom A113.

They hired Jeff Pidgeon, Rich Moore, Carole Holiday, Andrew Stanton and Nate Kanfer to work on the then-new Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures television series.

Other movements included Light and Space, which was closely related to the artists associated with the Ferus Gallery in the greater Los Angeles area.

In 1972, Calarts hosted an exhibition called The Last Plastics Show, which was organized by faculty artist Judy Chicago, Doug Edge, as well as Dewain Valentine.

[45] This exhibition included artists such as, Carole Caroompas, Ron Cooper, Ronald Davis, Fred Eversley, Craig Kauffman, Linda Levi, Ed Moses, Barbara T. Smith, and Vasa Mihich.

It was innovation for its own sake, a future that didn't include the past But without foundation, without techniques or a deeper understanding of history, you'd go off these wild explorations and end up reinventing the wheel.

", published in 2005, curator Aaron Rose wrote about an observed trend he recognized in Los Angeles's most esteemed art schools and their MFA programs, including CalArts.

Legions of creative young people flock to our city [Los Angeles] every year to work alongside their heroes and develop their talents with hopes of making it as an artist."

"[49] Musician and CalArts alumnus Ariel Pink notes in an interview "Unlike other art schools, they didn't focus on skills of any kind, specific color theory or anything like that.

"[50] CalArts graduates have joined or started successful pop bands, including: Maryama, Tranquility Bass, The Belle Brigade, The Weirdos, The Swords of Fatima / Buko Pan Guerra, Bedroom Walls, Dawn of Midi, Dirtwire, The Rippingtons, Fitz and the Tantrums, Fol Chen, London After Midnight, No Doubt, Mission of Burma, Radio Vago, Oingo Boingo, Acetone, Liars, Suburban Lawns, The Mae Shi, The Suburbs, Touché Amoré, and Ozomatli.

[52] In his book, Survival of the Richest, media theorist and MFA directing program graduate Douglas Rushkoff described his time while a theater student at CalArts.

He saw CalArts as an institution that offered numerous opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration; however, despite the creative atmosphere, the theater school was rooted in tradition, adhering to the classical approach to drama with a focus on crisis, climax, and resolution.

Rushkoff believed in blurring the line between performer and audience, and questioned the traditional theater model, which he viewed as imposing a sense of inevitability and confirming established order.

After attending a performance of Brecht's Threepenny Opera at the Ahmanson Theatre in 1989, and noticing the high cost of the least expensive ticket, he decide to leave the theater behind in favor of the Internet.

He believed that interactivity and digital platforms, such as the Web and hypertext stories, would provide users with multiple pathways and the freedom to choose their own adventures.

[53] Works that have been said to exemplify this version of the "CalArts style" include Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, and Over the Garden Wall, which were from CalArts graduates Pendleton Ward, Alex Hirsch, and Pat McHale respectively, but also the works of many non-CalArts animators, such as Rebecca Sugar's Steven Universe, Ben Bocquelet's The Amazing World of Gumball, Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon's Rick and Morty, Domee Shi's Academy Award-nominated Turning Red, etc.