Our Mission
Columbia College Hollywood educates students in the art and science of communications and the diverse media of contemporary storytelling within an exploration of the liberal arts. Our rigorous course of study and practice prepares graduates to be analytical thinkers and effective communicators who are creative, knowledgeable, and responsible contributors to advancing a curious, thoughtful, and compassionate global community.
Our History
For over 60 years, Columbia College Hollywood has fostered a learning community that promotes creativity, innovation, and growth through instruction, collaboration, and a common love of the creative media arts with programs that provide a challenging liberal arts education to best prepare students for citizenship in the global community as free-thinking, entrepreneurial storytellers, filmmakers, content creators, and artists.
The college was originally established in 1953 as a Los Angeles satellite campus of Columbia College Chicago. The curriculum was designed to prepare students for careers in television, radio, and film with courses taught by a faculty of working entertainment media professionals. In 1959, the Los Angeles campus separated from the Chicago institution to operate as Columbia College Hollywood, an independent, nonprofit, private institution.
Throughout the 60s and 70s, the college grew along with the film and television industries, moving first to a larger campus in central Hollywood and finally to its current main campus in the historic, former world headquarters of Panavision, a foremost designer and manufacturer of the finest cameras and lenses for the film and television industries. Over the next half-century, the college’s academic curricula and learning facilities underwent a steady transformation to become a thriving liberal arts college.
In 2018, Columbia College Hollywood expanded its program offerings when it acquired the former Tribeca Flashpoint College, a private creative media institution located in Chicago, Illinois and established its branch campus known as Flashpoint Chicago, a Campus of Columbia College Hollywood. Due to unsurmountable challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, the college made the difficult decision to close the Flashpoint Chicago campus as of August 2022.
Currently, Columbia College Hollywood offers instruction at the historic Herald Examiner Building in the South Park area of Downtown Los Angeles, a culture-rich location that provides a myriad of creative opportunities for Columbia College Hollywood storytellers and artists.
