CCA-NVIDIA Incubator for Creative Intelligence
Shape the future of AI, ethically and creatively. Access cutting-edge tools and make industry connections in this groundbreaking collaboration between NVIDIA and California College of the Arts (CCA).
Overview
Build better futures
Why now?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming our world and industries. At CCA, we're meeting the moment with the concept of creative intelligence—an approach that considers the entire ecosystem of creation: how something is made, why it's made, who's making it, and the circumstances that shape it. As Northern California's only nonprofit art and design college, CCA is strategically collaborating with industry leader NVIDIA to put creatives in conversation with AI innovation, fostering both agency and critical awareness.
Cutting-edge creative education
This collaboration not only advances creative intelligence in practice but also models sustainable and ethical practices for higher education and society at large. Building on CCA's nearly 120-year legacy of hands-on making, students will graduate with critical, computational, and creative skill sets to make change in a rapidly evolving world.
Key Objectives
Preparing students
Expanding student opportunities in AI-driven creative fields while strengthening broader skillsets through industry-recognized certifications and hands-on learning that supports diverse art and design careers.
Collaborative research
Fostering groundbreaking research between CCA faculty, NVIDIA experts, and industry leaders to push the boundaries of creative technology.
Curriculum innovation
Integrating AI and GPU-accelerated computing across all arts and design disciplines through cutting-edge educational programs and immersive learning experiences.
Community impact
Extending AI-arts education beyond campus to local artists, educators, and creative businesses while ensuring inclusive access for underrepresented communities.
We won't just ride the AI wave; we will prepare the next generation of creative shapeshifters who prove that the best future empowers humanity at every turn.”
Opportunity
Access tools, mentorship, and more
Centered on students and faculty, the collaboration launches with strategic initiatives, including AI skills training, customized curricula, industry partner programs, certifications, and joint research.
AI skills training
Work with NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute materials, advanced SDKs, and GPU-accelerated platforms. Create with the same tools used by top studios worldwide for animation, immersive design, and digital production.
Custom curriculum and certification
Courses integrating AI, generative design, and machine learning across visual arts, architecture, and interactive media, with industry-aligned skills like NVIDIA DLI teaching kits embedded directly into studio programs.
Faculty and student certification
Workshops and training sessions for faculty and students with industry-aligned AI-arts skills.
Collaboration and research
Built on principles of bilateral learning, this partnership connects NVIDIA subject matter experts with CCA faculty through technical guidance, guest lectures, and mentoring, while facilitating joint research projects that support innovation in both.
Industry partnership programs
Faculty and student certifications with members of the NVIDIA Inception program for startups and development of AI-arts exhibitions, hackathons, and public showcases to engage the broader creative community.
“Our collaboration with California College of the Arts brings together creativity and computing. By combining CCA's artistic vision with NVIDIA's AI platforms, we aim to set new standards for how technology enhances human imagination and innovation.”
NVIDIA Head of Ecosystem Development
Curricular Spotlight: Craft & Creative Technologies
From wearables to biomaterials, experiment with traditional crafts and cutting-edge technology in CCA's forward-thinking concentration within our Interdisciplinary BFA program. Merge practices such as ceramics, furniture, print media, sculpture, and textiles with creative technologies like coding, augmented reality, robotics, and digital fabrication.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
NVIDIA’s focus on AI seems like it is at odds with the creative field of artists who make up CCA. Why is CCA pursuing this relationship? How will you continue to support our creative community?
CCA has been engaging AI in the classroom for several years, recognizing it as one of many emerging tools shaping the world our students are entering. Our aim is not to embrace technology uncritically, but to prepare our community to approach it with care, both by exploring its potential and by examining its impact on art, culture, and the environment. As a college, our role is not to prescribe a single stance, but to provide the space for full and open exploration. Our collaboration with NVIDIA, like many of our industry collaborations gives us the opportunity to engage these very questions and to help shape the tools and materials that will be a part of our shared future.
Aside from the toll this will take on artists, the environmental impacts are devastating. As an institution that is focused on sustainability, what can you say about this?
We are very aware of the sustainability conversations with respect to AI, and see this as an area in which artists may also be able to contribute to the development of novel ideas and solutions.
How will CCA evaluate student work in this context—when some of the projects being explored may be so directly influenced by AI?
Because we will be deploying these tools in certain classes and as part of specific curricular components, our faculty will be able to evaluate students—and their work—clearly, because they will understand how they have chosen to incorporate or integrate AI into their classes.
What if a student wants to opt out of using AI in their work at CCA?
With the exception of specific courses that are pegged to exploring the use of AI, no one will be forced to use AI as part of their creative processes. CCA has been engaging AI in the classroom for several years, recognizing it as one of many emerging tools shaping the world our students are entering. As an educational institution, our goal is to ensure that we are exposing students to new ideas, tools, methodologies, forms, styles and materials—and that includes AI and other technologies that students will encounter after graduating. But ultimately, students will continue to make decisions about the tools and materials they choose to use in their work.
How does this collaboration with NVIDIA benefit CCA, beyond the financial support that the Foundation provided?
The collaboration with NVIDIA will support CCA’s position as a leading arts institution, one that is at the cutting edge of exploring how new tools and technologies can and will inform the work of artists—and how artists can reimagine how such tools might be used, now and in the future. In addition to the support NVIDIA will provide—to help CCA roll out new programs around AI, and integrate and make AI readily accessible to our students, faculty, and staff—the collaboration is an important signal to other prospective donors and strategic partners. It underscores CCA’s strengths and capacities as an institution worthy of additional funding and investment.
Outcomes
From connections to careers
With NVIDIA's mentorship, our students will pursue creative, interdisciplinary, and impactful careers. Graduates leave with a versatile skill set that's adaptable to today's industry needs. Technical skills in AI-powered design, machine learning, data visualization, and GPU-accelerated computing, combined with creative production and critical thinking, equate to long-term career readiness. The possibilities are endless for working in roles as creative technologists, AI product designers, researchers, and creative entrepreneurs.