After $75 M. Gift, Shuttered California College of the Arts to Become School Named for Silicon Valley Billionaire
Vanderbilt University announced that the San Francisco campus it is acquiring from the California College of the Arts (CCA) will open as the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design, following a $75 million gift from Nvidia founder Jen-Hsun “Jensen” Huang and his wife, Lori Huang. CCA, founded in 1907 and described as San Francisco’s last nonprofit private art school, said in January it would close in 2027 after selling its two campuses to Vanderbilt, citing declining enrollment, an unsustainable tuition model, and demographic shifts; the San Francisco Chronicle estimated CCA’s deficit at about $20 million in 2024. Vanderbilt also said it will establish a California College of the Arts Institute to manage CCA archives, support alumni and community programming, and continue the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts’ programming, and it is seeking a founding dean. KQED reported that CCA enrolled 207 undergraduates and 117 graduate students last fall, with fewer than 500 students expected to graduate before the 2027 transition; Huang previously gave $22.5 million in March 2025 to match donations from more than 50 other donors. Forbes estimated Huang’s net worth at $178.9 billion as of July 2026, and Vanderbilt said it has raised more than $25 million in additional support for its California outpost, slated to open in fall 2027 pending regulatory approval.
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This story was covered in Museum Power Shifts and Restitution Manhunts