The fine arts degree offered concentrations in drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture.

With an enrollment of approximately 200 students and a faculty of 50, CVA offered a low student-teacher ratio.

Bobleter, a prominent Saint Paul artist and educator then serving as chairman of the fine arts department at Hamline University, based the new curriculum on the Bauhaus model: an integrated program including both fine and applied arts, and general courses in the humanities, natural sciences, and aesthetics.

In October 2011, CVA also acquired accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

[2] The campus was located in Saint Paul's historic Ramsey Hill and Summit Avenue neighborhoods and comprised five buildings: the 1915 Watson P. Davidson House on Summit Avenue (which housed administrative offices, classrooms, computer labs, and printmaking and sculpture studios); a public gallery at Selby and Western avenues; and three buildings near the gallery that housed the library, additional classrooms and studios, and a photography lab.