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CCA was founded in 1907 by Frederick Meyer in Berkeley as the School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts during the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. The Arts and Crafts movement originated in Europe during the late 19th century as a response to the industrial aesthetics of the machine age. Followers of the movement advocated an integrated approach to art, design, and craft.
In 1908 the school was renamed California School of Arts and Crafts, and in 1936 it became the California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC).
The college's Oakland campus location was acquired in 1922, when Meyer bought the four-acre James Treadwell estate at Broadway and College Avenue. Two of its buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places. After the San Francisco campus was opened, the Oakland campus continued to house the more traditional, craft based studios like the art glass, jewelry metal arts, printmaking, painting, sculpture and ceramic programs.
In 1940 a Master of Fine Arts program was established.
In the 1980s, the college began renting various locations in San Francisco, and in 1996 it opened a campus in the city's Design District, converting a former Greyhound maintenance building.
In 2003 the college changed its name to California College of the Arts.
In 2016 it was decided to close the Oakland campus and consolidate all activities at the San Francisco campus. The final day of classes at Oakland was May 6, 2022. The college said it will "redevelop the campus with community gathering spaces, affordable housing, office space for arts nonprofits and bike parking while preserving the campus’s cluster of historic buildings and trees."
CCA offers 22 undergraduate and 13 graduate majors. In 2021, CCA unveiled a BFA in Comics. CCA confers the bachelor of fine arts (BFA), bachelor of arts (BA), bachelor of architecture (BArch), master of fine arts (MFA), master of arts (MA), master of architecture (MArch), master of advanced architectural design (MAAD), masters of design (MDes)[10] and master of business administration (MBA) degrees.
The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, located near the San Francisco campus in a facility on Kansas St., is a forum for contemporary culture. In 2013 the Wattis Institute recruited a new director, Anthony Huberman, formerly of Artist's Space in New York.
In the U.S. News & World Report rankings for 2020, CCA ranked #10 in the country for graduate fine arts programs, #4 in graphic design, and #6 in ceramics. PayScale lists CCA as the #1 art school in the United States for return on investment and #4 for average alumni salary (bachelor's degree). As of 2022, Niche rated CCA with an overall grade of B- (with B- for academics, A+ for diversity, and B- for value), reporting an acceptance rate of 85%, graduation rate of 67%, and average alumni starting salary of $29,400. The averages class size is 13 for undergraduate programs and 12 for graduate. The student to faculty ratio is 8:1.