Vanderbilt picks Fine Arts Museums executive Lisa Grove to build its San Francisco campus at CCA's Potrero Hill site

Vanderbilt University has hired Lisa Grove, most recently chief program and strategy officer at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (the de Young and the Legion of Honor), as associate vice chancellor for Vanderbilt University–San Francisco. She starts full time Nov. 16, according to the university.

The job

Grove will lead the operational and organizational development of the campus. She will report within Vanderbilt's Division of Operations and the Campus Network, which is led by Vice Chancellor Darren Reisberg. Before the Fine Arts Museums, Vanderbilt says, she was vice president of strategic initiatives at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, director and CEO of Telfair Museums in Savannah, and founding deputy director of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

Grove told the San Francisco Chronicle her first priority is listening to the city's arts and civic leaders. "Managing a successful and positive transition from CCA to Vanderbilt is critically important," she said. "As sad as CCA's closing is, people should feel the transition was handled in a way that was respectful and thoughtful."

The timeline

California College of the Arts plans to close for good at the end of the 2026-27 academic year. Vanderbilt plans to open on CCA's 4.5-acre Potrero Hill campus in fall 2027, pending regulatory approvals, the Chronicle and Vanderbilt reported. Vanderbilt has said it expects about 1,000 graduate and undergraduate students once the campus is fully operating.

What's planned

The centerpiece is the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design, backed by a $75 million matching gift from the Nvidia co-founder and his wife. Vanderbilt says the gift has helped bring in more than $100 million in commitments. The university also plans to preserve CCA's archives, continue the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts and create a California College of the Arts Institute at Vanderbilt. It may offer eligible CCA architecture students a way to finish their degrees on the new campus but has not said how many would qualify, the Chronicle reported.

CCA has said declining enrollment and a persistent structural deficit made its business model unsustainable. The deal drew praise from city officials and anger from parts of the CCA community, which has trained artists and architects in the Bay Area for about 120 years.