25 Beautiful West Coast Campuses You Have to See to Believe

15. California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) – Valencia, CA

CalArts is not your typical college campus—it’s a laboratory of imagination where the rules of traditional academia are joyfully rewritten. Located in the hills of Valencia, just north of Los Angeles, the campus’s unassuming, industrial exterior hides a creative explosion inside. Every hallway, wall, and common space is covered in student-made art, from experimental sculptures to graffiti murals to performance installations that spring up unannounced. Founded by Walt Disney and deeply intertwined with the animation and entertainment industries, CalArts is where icons like Tim Burton, John Lasseter, and countless Pixar and Disney animators got their start. But the school’s reach goes far beyond cartoons—it’s a haven for avant-garde musicians, dancers, writers, filmmakers, and visual artists. CalArts thrives on cross-pollination, encouraging boundary-breaking collaboration between disciplines. It's a place where students are given radical creative freedom—and expected to run with it. The result is a raw, energetic, and constantly evolving campus that feels more like a living organism than a fixed institution.