Dear Friends,

In many ways, 2021-22 marked an important inflection point for CalArts. As we began to emerge from the darkest days of the pandemic, our community of artists came alive again. Major events that so many of us have cherished, often for generations–from Halloween to graduation–brought us back to a familiar place that we love and appreciate. Yet beyond these joyous opportunities for interaction and the full return of in-person art-making, we were also able to shift some of our attention back to the important work preparing for the future.

As many of you know, Shaping CalArts Future, the Institute’s 2020 Strategic Framework, is the roadmap that our community has adopted to ensure that CalArts remains a vibrant and transformative institution in the years ahead. This past year that important work began in earnest. And in this report, you will see the variety of ways that we have begun to build the structures to ensure that CalArts lives up to the aspirational values for which we strive.

This year also coincides with our celebration of CalArts 50th anniversary. And while we are rightfully proud of our storied past, it is often at moments like these when we are best equipped to look forward and ask a critical question: what can we do now and over the next few years to make CalArts the community of artists that it needs to be for the next fifty years?

As you scroll through this report and see some of the work that our community has done, I hope you will recognize that we are taking this question, and our responsibility to current and future CalArtians, very seriously. Thank you for the role that you play in this important work. We are, indeed, a community of artists and you represent a key component of that community. I am grateful for everything that you do for our current and future student-artists and I look forward to what we will accomplish for them in the years ahead.

Ravi Rajan
President of CalArts