VCFA Announces Partnership with CalArts

VCFA is entering into a partnership with CalArts. In legal form CalArts will be our “parent,” but under the terms of our affiliation agreement VCFA will retain its academic independence and its unique form and mission. 

VCFA will continue to have its own Board of Trustees, President, academic leadership, and faculty. VCFA will continue to offer and support our current six MFA degree programs: Film, Graphic Design, Music Composition, Visual Art, Writing, and Writing for Children & Young Adults. VCFA will continue to deliver its high quality, mission-driven, low-residency program to current and future students. VCFA will continue to support and engage its unique alumnx population. 

The cost of our programs and the availability of student financial aid will not be affected. VCFA students will remain students of VCFA and, when they complete their programs, they will become proud VCFA graduates.

Starting in January 2025, VCFA residencies will find their permanent home at the CalArts campus in Valencia, California.

California Institute of the Arts, CalArts, which was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution in the US created specifically for students of both the visual and performing arts, is a highly regarded, primarily residential institution located just north of Los Angeles in Valencia, California.

VCFA and CalArts share a mission to advance innovation, inclusion, and equity in art education. We are each strategically committed to developing flexible, student-centered academics that support diverse artists in working in a variety of practices with opportunities for multi- and interdisciplinary study.

We anticipate that this transaction will have a positive impact on the programs VCFA offers and on our students and faculty: we will benefit from the use of CalArts’ excellent campus and facilities, and the expanded administrative and student services support that only a larger institution can provide.

As previously planned and promised, the summer 2024 VCFA residency will take place on the campus of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After our summer 2024 residency, starting in January 2025, VCFA residency experiences will take place on the campus of CalArts in Valencia, California.

VCFA anticipates the final formalization of our partnership with CalArts will go into effect during the summer of 2024 as we look towards the new fiscal year. 

As previously planned, the summer 2024 VCFA residency will take place on the campus of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After our summer 2024 residency, starting in January 2025, VCFA residencies will take place on the campus of CalArts in Valencia, California.

Free-standing graduate institutions in any field are the exception, all the more so in the arts. Providing a learning experience of the highest level is expensive, and for an institution that prides itself on serving a diverse population, the challenges of accessibility and affordability have proven monumental. The impact of the COVID years has only exacerbated this situation. Many schools facing similar circumstances have simply closed their doors, but VCFA was too important, too special to be given up on.

In making this decision, the Board of Trustees and VCFA staff leadership, and faculty leadership conducted extensive discussions evaluating potential partners. CalArts quickly and definitively showed itself to be the ideal partner because of the alignment between our strategic missions, its experience and reputation in the arts, and the extensive and dedicated resources it can offer to the VCFA community.

Not by any means! Quite the contrary. VCFA is entering into a formal partnership with CalArts that will enable us to continue to maintain our home in Montpelier, our own accreditation with NECHE, and our future as leaders in graduate arts education.

No. VCFA will continue to be authorized by the State of Vermont and accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE).

Please contact Katie Rasmussen, Dean of Students, via email at [email protected]. 

VCFA will undergo a corporate reorganization, changing from its current self-perpetuating (non-member) board to a single-member corporation, naming CalArts as its sole “Member”. This creates a parent-subsidiary type of relationship. VCFA will continue to be a Vermont-registered non-profit with administrative offices in Montpelier and its own governing board.

VCFA will re-compose its Board of Trustees to create a Board that is composed of 11, 13 or 15 Trustees. A simple majority of the Trustees (50% + 1) will be appointed by CalArts as the Member and responsible fiduciary for VCFA. The VCFA Trustees (1 fewer than the number appointed by CalArts) will be appointed initially by the current VCFA Board and in the future both sets of trustees will refill these positions at the appropriate ratios.

The CalArts President and the VCFA President will each serve as ex officio voting trustees within their respective Trustee groups, and VCFA has committed to exploring student and faculty Board representation as well. The CalArts trustee group will include one current CalArts Board member. As with any governing Board, all VCFA Trustees are independently appointed and must act as fiduciaries in keeping with the best interests of the institution.

As always, VCFA staff will make academic and administrative decisions about the day-to-day operations of our institution and programs.

In order to ensure that such choices are determined by VCFA at the highest level, VCFA Board members must also initiate and participate in the majority in votes on all matters pertaining to VCFA. To act, the VCFA Board will need to convene a quorum consisting of a majority of the full number of Trustees plus one with at least a majority of the VCFA Trustees present. Once a quorum is present, routine matters will require a majority vote of the Trustees present. Significant matters—such as changing VCFA’s mission, amending its bylaws, or establishing or eliminating programs—will require a “supermajority” vote. A supermajority vote requires the positive approval of a majority plus two of the full Board and a majority of all of the VCFA Trustees. This ensures at least a consensus among both sets of Trustees.

Extraordinary matters that impact the parent organization, such as changes in purpose or governance, must also include approval of CalArts. Overall, this structure is aimed at giving CalArts an appropriate amount of influence given the financial obligations that it is taking on while preserving a meaningful VCFA voice that must agree on a consensus basis to preserve VCFA’s independence and the VCFA legacy.

Please contact Katie Rasmussen, Dean of Students via email at [email protected]. Additionally, read our news announcement and the official press release.