The president of Selkirk College says that even if the programs at Kootenay Studio Arts were fully subscribed or based in a different building, the college would still not be able to afford to run them.
The college announced on Oct. 17 that it would shut down its arts campus in Nelson at the end of this year. The campus offers programs in ceramics, metalwork and fabric arts.
The cutback is a result of new federal immigration policies that have reduced the number of international students given study permits in Canada. Those students have been a significant source of revenue for Canadian community colleges. As a result of those changes, Selkirk College is anticipating a $3-4 million budget shortfall in 2026-2027.
Matear said the program’s enrolment has gone up and down over the years. The average enrolment has been 25 students, and the maximum capacity is 33 students.
“The programs are so small and they have a high instructor-student ratio,” Matear said. “We are not able to afford this.”
She said the college will save approximately $615,000 per year by closing the campus, which doesn’t include other savings on indirect costs such as IT support and maintenance.
If Selkirk had been the owner of the building, which the college leases from the City of Nelson, Matear said it would have made no difference.
Could the programs have been moved to college-owned site?
“We certainly did look at that, but the cost of renovations for such specialized facilities and equipment is far more than we would be able to invest. We are talking forges, kilns, lots of space for textiles, ventilation systems, a lot of health and safety stuff. It is really expensive to do renovations for something like that.”
Matear said the programs were marketed by the college in Viewbook (the program guide for prospective students) and that there are specific flyers available for all programs across the college. Increased marketing, she added, would not have solved the problem.
“Even if we were full, we would not be able to afford these programs. They are just too expensive. The classes need to stay small, so even if they were full, it would not have made a difference.”
As for the business and hospitality-tourism programs mostly attended by international students, Matear said the college has suspended enrolment in those programs and is analyzing what form they might take in the future.
Asked how arts education fits into a future vision for the college, Matear said the college aims at becoming “a destination for students who are looking for land- and place-based learning and inquiry. We want to be a distinctive college on the Canadian landscape where people come because we are located in the Kootenays, and the programming that we offer is related to living and thriving in rural areas.”
She said the college is working with communities and industry to offer programming that works for them, “and in particular programs that lead to meeting demands in the job market. We want to support our region. We want to encourage people to come to our region, learn what it is about and then make their lives here. So we are offering programs that are very closely related to what we need here in the Kootenays.”
Are trained artists and craftspeople part of that need?
“That’s a tough thing. We had a whole building set aside for a maximum of 33 students and we needed 10 staff to support them. So it becomes very difficult when we are trying to manage an empty wallet and a lot of community priorities. It was a really painful decision.”
Matear said the college intends hold a meeting of local arts organizations in early November to look at alternative ways of running the programs. This would not be a public meeting but by invitation.
“It’s an invitation to discuss the future of KSA,” she said, adding that there are other independent training school models such as co-ops and non-profit societies.
“We want to see what that might look like …. so it could be a return to the way Kootenay School of the Arts started (before Selkirk took it over in 2006), which was as an independent organization.”