Exploring CCA, (or CCAC), 25, 50, and 100 years ago, we mark these places in time and look back at the campus life and the studio culture that have made the college special to generations of artists and designers. From the foundations and enduring importance of craft, to the Futura balls, to visitors like Bob Dylan, we remember what makes us unique and share the oral histories of community members telling stories from their experiences at CCA.

Image: Photograph from the 1965-66 CCAC Yearbook. Index caption reads “Geoff on the Roof”.

Podcast: Remembering CCA—A Collection of Oral Histories

Pulled from the college’s archive of collected oral histories, alumni share memories about what CCA was like while they were students, telling stories about the spaces, people, work, and activity that happened at the college between the 1950’s to 70’s.

Image: CCAC event "Art-in-Action", sponsored by Lakeshore Merchants Association September 6, 1969. CCAC participants, from left to right: Art Nelson, Bill Pickerill, Larry Kennedy, Mrs. Evelyn Johnson, Sylvia Helder, David Helder, Ruth Tamura, Mary White.

Exhibition: The Joy of Life is Doing Things—CCA 100 Years Ago

Looking back at CCA’s foundational decades from the Berkeley years to its beginnings in Oakland, The Joy of Life is Doing Things explores what the founders and the first students were doing: making in the studios, building the campus, creating a community, and laying the foundations of an enduring dedication to craft, industriousness, and community responsibility that we still find present in our institutional culture today.

Image: A life drawing class sometime during 1906 - 1922. During this time period, life modeling and drawing classes were taught separately for men and women.

Exhibition: Onward and Definitely Upward!—CCA 50 Years Ago

1970 marked the middle in a period of exceptional development and change at the college. “Onward and Definitely Upward!” pulled from the Winter 1968 newsletter featuring a campus construction update, looks back fifty years ago, marking this time of incredible growth in size, space, discourse, and reputation, and celebrating the alumni community who are marking their 50th anniversary graduating from CCAC.

Image: Before the furniture arrived, alumni visitors viewed the airy heights of the spacious Meyer library. Image dated September 1968.

Exhibition: Community Conversations—CCA 25 Years Ago

The 90s was a decade characterized by cross-cultural dialogue and challenging convention. At the California College of Arts and Crafts, this took many forms— from discussing contemporary social issues through student forums and lectures by visiting artists and activists, an increased emphasis connecting students with working artists, to bringing the community together in the campus’s galleries— Community Conversations explores the 90s at the CCAC and the dialogue happening within the college community during that time.

Image: Staff setting up for the 1994 Commencement reception in front of Macky Hall. Douglas Sandberg (Photographer).