Vancouver Island School of Art
The Vancouver Island School of Art (VISA) is a private post-secondary school founded in 2004 located in Victoria, British Columbia. The school has made use of a heritage building built in 1921 that is owned by School District 61 Greater Victoria, but was no longer being used by the school board. The building is located in an area of Victoria known as the Quadra Village. This neighbourhood consists people of mixed income brackets and diverse ethnic backgrounds. The Quadra Village is a mixture of residential and commercial properties and with VISA, an educational institution is now part of the make-up of the village. VISA has a fairly large backyard with a basketball court and a community garden (that was initiated as a student project). The backyard is in continual use by various members of the community as it is one of the few open green spaces in the neighbourhood.
VISA is accredited with the Private Career Training Institution Agency (PCTIA) http://www.pctia.bc.ca/ which is the regulatory body for private schools in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. VISA is also a Registered Charity with the Canada Revenue Agency. As of 2011, VISA has an articulation agreement with Emily Carr University of Art and Design.[1] VISA's Certificate of Visual Arts is equal to 1st year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts, a Bachelor of Design or Bachelor of Media Arts.[2] VISA's Diploma of Fine Arts is transferable to the Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts at the University of Gloucestershire in the UK. http://insight.glos.ac.uk/academicschools/dad/courses/fineart/Pages/default.aspx. Students accepted into the program at the University of Gloucestershire from VISA can complete the BA in Fine Art within eight months.
VISA offers three programs including a Certificate of Visual Arts, a Diploma of Fine Arts and an Independent Studio Certificate. Students can choose from the following kinds of courses: drawing, design, graphic design, painting, sculpture, photography, video, art history, critical studies and professional development. To date there have 78 graduates from the Diploma and Certificate programs. The school focuses on part-time learning because so few people can afford the luxury of full-time study so courses are offered in the day and evening and are open to people with all different levels of experience. The school's mission statement is to offer art education that includes an emphasis on technique and personal expression in a contemporary context.
There is a gallery space located in the lower level of the school called The Slide Room Gallery http://www.slideroomgallery.com/. The gallery is a separate non-profit organization from the school and its mandate is to showcase the work of local artists. The gallery enables students to see the work of professional artists while they are studying the fundamentals of art.
References
http://insight.glos.ac.uk/academicschools/dad/courses/fineart/Pages/default.aspx