After years of declining enrollment and financial woes, California College of the Arts, the last remaining private art and design school in the San Francisco Bay Area, will shutter and be absorbed into Vanderbilt University following the completion of the 2026–2027 academic year. Curator Natasha Boas, who helped pioneer CCA’s Curatorial Practice Master’s program and taught at the school from 2000 to 2010, described the news as “another massive shock in a series of cultural shocks” to the city in a statement to Hyperallergic. “The very things we value, education, art, culture, are disappearing at a rapid rate. An art school is a very different animal from a university. Vanderbilt is totally off-brand. What is San Francisco doing to keep their artists in the city? A city without artists is a true dystopia.” The move follows the San Francisco Art Institute’s closure in 2022 on the heels of the pandemic, increasing debts, and a failed merger with the University of San Francisco. Current...