MONTPELIER – The Vermont College of Fine Arts has received accreditation, an important milestone that shows the Montpelier-based institution is here to stay, college officials said Thursday.
“Accreditation is more than accreditation,” VCFA president Tom Greene said Thursday during an announcement ceremony at the college campus. It emphasizes “the fundamental fact that we’re here and will be here for a long time.”
One of the college’s trustees said the formal approval from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges shows the school’s finances received a passing grade, and is a testament to the academic programs.
“Accreditation means that an objective outside look has concluded that the college is fiscally sound and responsible,” said trustee Bob Atwell.
The accreditation process usually takes five years, but for VCFA, it took a little less than two.
The main practical effect of accreditation is that it will help the school recruit students to the college’s three Masters of Fine Arts programs, said Greene.
Montpelier Mayor Mary Hooper was thrilled that VCFA, which she said is a major asset to the community, was accredited.
She said the arts institution adds to the “heart and soul” of the community and – along with other local institutions of higher learning — is a benefit economically.
“I believe we would not have four independently-owned bookstores if not for the College of Fine Arts and the other institutions of higher education,” said Hooper, who is on VCFA’s board of trustees.
Greene said VCFA employs 60 people full-time in addition to the 100 faculty members around the country.
Less than two years ago, the fate of the historic campus and the academic programs were uncertain. In 2006, Union Institute & University, an Ohio-based school with locations around the country, put the campus and the three MFA programs up for sale. The University of Vermont was interested in buying but the deal fell through. Real estate developers who hoped to transform the campus into condominiums were among the remaining interested buyers, which worried some community members.
With the threat of the campus being dismantled and sold piecemeal, Greene, an alumnus of the MFA program and a published novelist, teamed up with Bill Kaplan, a real estate professional. They led the two-year effort to buy the college. They assembled a board of trustees, and the group raised $12 million, purchasing the college in June 2008.
VCFA is now an independent non-profit that owns the campus and the three low-residency MFA programs: one in the visual arts, one in writing and another in writing for children and young adults.
It also leases space to the New England Culinary Institute, the Community College of Vermont and Union Institute & University.
Though VCFA is newly independent, the MFA programs have been around for some time under the umbrella of Norwich University and Union Institute. Next year, for instance, the MFA in Writing Program will celebrate its 30th anniversary.
Award-winning children’s book author and Barre Town resident Katherine Paterson is on VCFA’s board of trustees. She used a literary allusion yesterday to describe the college’s path to accreditation.
“Vermont College of Fine Arts is truly the little engine that could,” said Paterson. “We’ve huffed and puffed our way through mountains of requirements both academic and financial and come to this exciting pinnacle.”