Members of the CCA community,

Since our last update, we have continued to meet with Vanderbilt to shape what will become the CCA Institute at Vanderbilt, built on the ethos that has defined this college for over a century. Representatives from both CCA and VU recently held a working session to advance that vision, and we want to share where things stand.

This work has been informed by many voices across our community. We want to thank our faculty representatives, staff, and alumni for the time and thought they have put into these conversations. What we bring to Vanderbilt reflects what you have told us matters most.

CCA and Vanderbilt agreed early on that Vanderbilt would create the Institute and CCA's role would be to advise Vanderbilt. We do not hold decision-making authority over how Vanderbilt develops the Institute. What we share are recommendations, shaped by our community's priorities and our understanding of what made CCA distinct. At our recent working session, we presented ideas along these lines. Vanderbilt was receptive to this input and welcomed it as they determine how best to launch the Institute in the fall of 2027. The final shape of that work rests with them.

We are advising across three areas: the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, a Fellowships and Residency Program, and the CCA/C Archives and Special Collections. Alongside these, we are discussing how the Institute might connect to the broader academic, cultural, and community partnerships that have carried CCA's work beyond San Francisco. Alumni sit at the center of this thinking. Our community of more than 25,000 living alumni carries CCA’s 120-year legacy into every corner of the world, and no one understands its impact on individuals and communities better than they do. We have advised Vanderbilt that any institute framework must integrate alumni into the Institute's work in a way that honors their perspective and expertise.

These are still conversations in progress. While nothing is yet final, we want you to know that momentum exists, and that the priorities guiding these discussions come directly from this community. We continue to advise and encourage Vanderbilt to be intentional and deliberate in carrying forward the people, the relationships, the intellectual assets, and the creative culture that made CCA valuable in the first place. CCA's legacy is ours. It was built here, over more than a century, by the students, faculty, and alumni who gave this place its character. These are the things that matter most.

We will keep you informed as this work progresses.

We continue.

President Howse