The institute holds exhibitions, lectures, and symposia, releases publications, and runs the Capp Street Project residency program.

[2] It was originally named the CCAC Institute of Exhibitions and Public Programming,[2] and was renamed is 2002 following the death of Phyllis C. Wattis, a San Francisco cultural philanthropist[3][4] and the great-granddaughter of Brigham Young.

[5] The art center was originally located on the San Francisco campus of the California College of the Arts, in a refurbished 160,000-square-foot (15,000 m2) former Greyhound Bus maintenance facility designed in 1951 by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

The facility was redesigned by architect Mark Jensen, best known for his work with the Rooftop Garden at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

[9] It was founded in San Francisco in 1983, and by 2020 had supported over 100 local, national, and international artists through its residency and public exhibition programs.