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1988 ARRIVAL AND FINANCIAL TURNAROUND Steven D. Lavine joins CalArts as the Institute’s third president. Facing a long pattern of budget deficits that threatened the future of the Institute, he works quickly to build a strong financial base and renew the school’s internal leadership. Robert Egelston becomes Chair of the Board of Trustees.
1990 COMMUNITY ARTS PARTNERSHIP (CAP)
Addressing the CalArts community, driven out of doors following the 1994 Northridge Earthquake.
Wasn’t the cost of tuition an obstacle to widening the diversity of the student body?
Community Arts Partnership (CAP) students and CalArts student-instructors gather around Steven Lavine and CAP Artistic Director Glenna Avila at Inner-City Arts in downtown L.A.
Cost has always been an issue, though not to the extent it is today. More central was helping CalArts become more welcoming of ethnic diversity. The first step in this direction was the establishment of the Community Arts Partnership [CAP], which began with the triple goal of providing first-rate arts education to underserved youth in Los Angeles; giving our current students exposure to more of the social and economic facts of life; and tying CalArts more overtly to the needs and priorities of Los Angeles. A recently appointed trustee, George Boone, had offered me $25,000 toward whatever I thought was the highest priority at CalArts, and allowed me to apply most of those funds to starting CAP. We began with three programs with our faculty and students teaching high school students at three prominent community-centered arts organizations: Plaza de la Raza, the Watts Towers Arts Center, and SPARC [Social and Public Art Resources Center]. I didn’t think we were doing anything radical. It just seemed like common sense to share our resources with those who had less. But it turned out to be a new idea that, in fairly short order, attracted both local and national support. Today CAP serves nearly 3,000 students each year through both long-term out-of-school and in-school programs, and thousands more through daylong workshops and performances. CAP has also proven to be a significant driver of diversity at CalArts.
Steven launches the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP), now an internationally recognized program providing free arts education for youth ages 6–18 in many of Los Angeles’ most underserved neighborhoods. CAP’s success serves as a model for other arts education organizations nationwide.
1993 The largest fundraising campaign in CalArts’ history tops $50 million.
1994 NORTHRIDGE EARTHQUAKE The Institute faces one of its most challenging moments in January of 1994 when damage sustained during the Northridge Earthquake renders the Valencia campus unusable. Steven rallies and unites the Institute’s faculty, staff and students, and leads a $42 million fundraising effort in just eight months, enabling the campus to reopen the following September.
SPRING 2016