CalArts Celebrates 50 Years of Following Walt Disney’s Dreams
variety.comCarole Horst For 50 years, it’s been a safe place for storytellers – musicians, animators, directors, writers, artists of all kinds – to learn, grow and thrive.
As CalArts celebrates its golden anniversary, it also faces the future head-on. Broad trustee emeritus Tim Disney, whose great-grandfather, Walt Disney, laid the foundation for what is now a world-class arts school, says that CalArts was founded with very large-scale, utopian ideas by Walt Disney. “Disneyland and CalArts were very grand things,” Disney says, adding that Walt died before the school opened and that his grandfather, Roy Disney, “had the very hard job” seeing the plans through. “His commitment was a very beautiful thing.” It’s not a coincidence that Tim Disney spearheaded the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (RedCat) in Downtown L.A., which hosts cutting-edge performances. “Walt Disney was inspired by CalTech.
He had radical ideas about education, and wanted to create a kind of laboratory where the arts would cross-pollinate,” notes CalArts faculty member and author Janet Sarbanes, who has been doing extensive research on the school’s history. “Disney said bring me the most innovative people in their field.” She notes that Disney’s vision was “radical,” recruiting avant- garde artists from New York but always with an eye on cross-pollinating disciplines.
The rich mix of artists/instructors and intellectual stimulation has seen such names as Tim Burton, Don Cheadle, Pete Docter, Genndy Tartakovsky, Katy Sagal, Allison Brie, Ravi Coltrane, Nedra Wheeler, Marcelo Zarvos and Paul Ruebens, among many others, trek its halls. “CalArts has had an outsized impact on our society, evidenced by what the alumni have done,” says CalArts president Ravi
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