cca/c college archives search
read the finding aidCalifornia College of Art Archives, (Date Range 1908-2003)
45 linear feet; 20 record storage boxes, 17 document cases, 1 oversize volume, 2 file drawers
California College of the Arts
Meyer Library
5212 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94618
English
Several different donors donated the California College of Art materials to the college over time. Alumni, faculty and departments within the College generally donate materials held by the College Archives.
Collection is open for research; please contact the institution directly. In most cases advance notice or an appointment are required for use.
All requests for permission to publish materials must be submitted in writing to the college. Any permission for publication, reproduction, or quotation is granted on behalf of the holding institution as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the user.
[Identification of item], from the archives of California College of the Arts, Meyer Library, Oakland California.
The formation California College of Arts and Crafts was directly influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement, which spread throughout Europe in the latter half of the 19th century. The movement was sometimes associated with Jugendstil and Art Nouveau. The Arts and Crafts movement was in part a response to and a revolt against the change in aesthetics prompted by the dawn of the industrial revolution. The ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement, such as “an artist should be actively involved in creating items for living” and “trying to combat the spreading of the ugliness of the Victorian era” were great influences on Fredrick H. Meyer, the primary founder of the college.
Fredrick H. Meyer, Laetitia Meyer, Perham Nahl and Isabelle Percy West founded what became California College of Arts and Crafts in the summer of 1907. In its early days the school made its home at various addresses in the Berkeley area, including the Studio building (one block from the UC campus), 2130 Center St. and 2119 Allston Way. In 1909 Xavier Martinez joined the faculty and developed the nascent fine arts division. In 1914, the school received state accreditation. In 1922 the school incorporated, so it could grant degrees equivalent to college degrees. The first degrees offered at the college were a Bachelor of Applied Art (B.A.A.), Bachelor of Fine Art (B.F.A.) and Bachelor of Art Education (B.A.Ed.).
Information for this brief history was drawn entirely from California College of Arts and Crafts, 1907-1944, a thesis by Margaret Penrose Dhaemers, Mills College, 1967. A copy of this thesis can be found in the CCAC Archive in Series I, Subseries 7, as well as in the Meyer Library collection, call no. LD652 D53 1967.
1908-1936 Director
1936-1944 President
1944-1954 President
1954-1957 President
1957-1959 President
September 1959-March 1960 Acting President
March 1960-1984 President
1984-1985 Acting President
June 1985-July 1993 President
August 1993-April 1994:
John Stein, Chief Operating officer
Lorne Buchman, Provost
April 1994-October 1999
October 1999-July 2000
Stephen Beale, Provost
David Kirschman, Vice President for Administration and Finance
2000-Present President
Materials were divided into Series based upon their content, as the strict provenance of most of the archives materials is unclear. Because some materials are appropriate to more than one series, there are some duplicates in the collection and a researcher may encounter the same item in more than one place in the collection.
Photographs were left in place in various series in the collection, so as to make possible their identification by context. There is a series of photographs (Series VI) that had been separated from the collection and loosely organized by subject, topic or date. The original provenance of these photos was not recorded.
Where multiple copies of an item were found, the best three copies of the item were retained for the archives. Extra copies of some items were retained, such as accreditation reports and some publications, and may be available to interested parties.
The inventory and arrangement of Series I-V was conducted by Sarah (Tommy) Walker, with the assistance of Nancy Chan, during Spring 2006. Sarah Walker is also the author of this finding aid. The web-accessible interface was designed and implemented by Lia Thomas.
To report errors or difficulties with searching, please contact the archives manager, Janice Woo, jwoo@cca.edu.
This series contains the bulk of the collection and is divided into 9 subseries. The subseries are subsequently ordered by year. These are the records that detail the day-to-day work of running the college. This series includes materials such as faculty and staff files, development and financial records, strategic plans and the college's accreditation reports.
These are the records of the minutes, committee materials and communications of the Academic Council. This subseries also includes the records of the Council for Academic Administration. This body is responsible for working out the details involved in the recommendations of the Academic Council, for attempting to implement the recommendations of the Academic Council, to determine time schedules, budgets and procedures, and to report back to the Academic Council the results of their deliberations.
This subseries contains accreditation reports, accreditation self-study reports and credential licensing materials.
These are the records of the minutes, committee materials and communications of the Board of Directors / Board of Trustees.
These are the records of the minutes, committee materials and communications of the Faculty Assembly / Faculty Senate. This subseries also includes the records of various committees, such as the Executive Committee of the Faculty Assembly, the Faculty Committee on Appointments, Promotions, and Privileges, the Curriculum Committee, the Committee on Exhibitions and the Library Committee.
These are records that document the involvement and contributions of the faculty and staff of CCAC. These files are organized alphabetically by name. These are active files and are housed separately from the bulk of the archival collection, in filing cabinets, at the Meyer Library, Oakland Campus.
These are records that pertain to the financial life of the college. This subseries includes administrative materials as they pertain to tuition, scholarships, grants, compensation, salary and benefits.
This subseries contains general administrative materials, records of the daily business of running the college. Records that can be found in this subseries include campus maps and plans, inter-office correspondence and administrative files related to various departments and staff publications.
This subseries contains records that document programs such as the El Molino Independent Study, the Osaka Exchange Program and Co-op Education Programs.
This subseries contains the records of the PresidentÍs office. Materials that can be found in this subseries include PresidentÍs office correspondence, files on the individual presidents including some photographs, Buildings and Grounds committee reports, Master Plans and Strategic Plans and other executive analysis and reports.
This series contains the materials of the CCAC Alumni Society, in order by year.
This series contains three subseries, Commencement materials, Ephemera and Events. The subseries have been arranged in date order, by year.This series contains materials that document the daily life of the community of students, faculty and staff at CCAC. Celebrations, such as commencement, activities sponsored by students or the college such as lectures, visiting artists, art sales are documented by invitations, fliers, announcements, pictures, bulletins etc.
The Commencement Materials subseries contains materials that document the commencement exercises of the college year by year, as well as documentation of speeches by commencement speakers, honorary degree recipients and examples of diplomas awarded.
The Ephemera subseries consists of files organized by an unidentified creator that contain a range of materials that document daily life at the college. These folders were titled "Archives" and were a deliberate attempt to collect items that would provide a snapshot of the formal and informal activities of the CCA community. The folders contain items such as invitations, fliers, press releases, announcements, booklets, publications etc.
These are records that document activities at the college, organized by specific event. This subseries contains materials that document events such as founders' day events, anniversaries, performing arts events and lectures.
This series contains materials pertaining to the individual departments of the college, such as the Fine Arts Department, Design and Graphics, Architecture, Art education, Ethnic Studies, Fashion etc. Materials are varied and may have been generated by the individual departments or may be more administrative in nature, originating from an administrative body or office. These materials are in date order, by year.
This series is divided into three subseries: CCAC Collection Materials, Exhibits, and Gallery Management Class Materials. The subseries are in date order, by year. This series contains materials that document the exhibitions associated with California College of the Arts.
This subseries contains contracts, appraisals and correspondence all relating to the management of the CCAC permanent collection.
The Exhibits subseries contains materials that document various exhibits at the CCAC galleries as well as exhibits at other venues that have CCAC student and faculty involvement.
The Gallery Management Class Subseries documents the activities of these student run galleries and contains handouts, correspondence, schedules, announcements, etc.
The Photographs series contains photographs that were removed from their context in the collection by library staff during earlier organizational efforts and has been organized by subject, topic or date.
This series contains materials that document the history of CCAC as recorded by the press. This series is divided into two subseries, Press releases and Press clippings. Both subseries are subsequently ordered by year.
This series contains periodicals published by CCA/C, for example the CCAC Bulletin, Arts & Crafts Review, Mugwump, D'Art, the CCAC Catalogue, and various Alumni Society newsletters. Eventually these titles will be listed in the CCA Libraries catalog. Other publications include exhibition catalogs that are shelved in the general library collections. Use the library catalog to locate these or ask a librarian for assistance.
Student theses are available through the CCA Libraries catalog and are housed in either Meyer or Simpson Library.