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140 Teachers Unpaid After Online Art School CGMA Abruptly Shuts Down Operations
Computer Graphics Master Academy (CGMA), the well-known online school for digital art and animation, has suddenly stopped offering classes and taking new students after discovering that a Certificate of Dissolution was quietly filed with the California Secretary of State almost a year ago.
Domestika, Inc., CGMA’s sole shareholder, announced on September 30 that the filing’s validity and consequences are now before a court. Until a judge decides what happens next, CGMA says it can’t operate normally, so no classes for students, and the instructors aren’t being paid.
The Domestika notice explained that once a company is dissolved in California, it’s only allowed to wind down its affairs, not run day-to-day business. In the meantime, payment processors have been switched to a “deposit-only” mode to hold funds and records until the court weighs in. New class sign-ups have been disabled, and any checkout pages that still appear are said to be an error.
Huge questions loom about why CGMA remained in operation for the spring term of 2025 if the company was dissolved in November 2024.
Instructor Frustration
While the official statement focused on legal and financial preservation, anger has been spreading online from instructors and staff who say they haven’t been paid for work they finished months ago. Some have shared screenshots of overdue invoices and ignored support tickets.
One former instructor posted a public warning about unpaid work on LinkedIn, while a larger group of teachers released a joint statement calling out CGMA and Domestika.
Two years ago Domestika bought CGMA. Most instructors noticed that enrollment went down drastically after this, but we assumed it might be because of the recent changes, but we kept going.
Two weeks ago, several instructors got in touch as they noticed that Domestika/CGMA was not paying us for the last terms we taught. We tried to get in touch with the old staff, but we got a reply from them saying that they weren’t allowed to provide any new information. No reply from Domestika.
Nearly 140 instructors have not been paid to this day. For some of them it was their only source of income allowing to sustain themselves and their families.
Still, the school kept allowing new students to enroll, while not paying the instructors and blocking them their acces to the Online Campus and blocking them also on Domestika’s social platforms.
A few days ago they deleted all or courses from the CGMA website (without our knowledge).
It is extremely unfortunate that our collaboration with the school ends like this. Aside from the money they owe to all of us instructors, they have both let down teachers, students and staff. We would like to point out that the old CGMA staff were always kind and helpful, so this is for sure a consequence of domestika purchasing the school.
If you want to help us instructors, just sharing this would be very appreciated.
– The former CGMA instructors.
According to the post, a group of 140 instructors, some of whom relied on this as their sole source of income, have not been paid.
Uncertainty
Domestika said the court could decide how company records and funds are handled and might even appoint a receiver to oversee the process. There’s no timeline for when payments might be resolved or whether classes could ever resume. Even if CGMA finds a way to restart, many likely feel that the damage to trust would be hard to repair.
Founded in 2010, CGMA grew into one of the most recognized names in online training for concept art, animation, and game development, attracting thousands of students and many working professionals as instructors. Its sudden standstill leaves students, freelancers, and vendors unsure whether they’ll see refunds, back pay, or a return of the platform at all.
The company says it will share updates “as soon as legally permitted” while the case moves through the courts.
What’s Being Said
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