My Art School

What is it about KIAC SOVA that makes it great?

Hmmm, first off there's only 15 students, 8 of them live in the residence, which is a two story bed n' breakfast rented out by the school. Because of my personal adventures, I think the res is pretty big. But I lived on a boat, so maybe my opinion of things is distorted.

There's the fact that it's located in Dawson City, Yukon. This place is tiny by any standards, but it's more active than a town ten times its size, like the place I come from, Hawkesbury. It's magical here, and pretty removed from the world at large, and everyone sticks together. Many of the people that I've met here are travelers, and a lot of tourists come through. This town is a great place for an arts school; it's very supportive of arts. There's a very active cultural center, they have shows and exhibitions, movie viewings and art lecturers, there's the Artist in Residence program which allows for two pro artists to stay in town for a while, and they showcase art here... Our art class meets at one of the bars on fridays for a Drinking-Drawing club, we have brunches at the residence sometimes, and we watch movies at school. The feel of Dawson is very friendly, there's plenty of things to do, indoor soccer, swimming, hockey, etc...

And then there's the school itself. There's only 4 staff, and that's kind of scary when you see it from the website. But when you get here, it feels pretty natural. The school is small, but it is ridiculously well equipped. Only 1 program is offered, the Foundation Year Art Program, which is entry level fine-arts standard 1st year course across the country. The school is partnered with OCAD, ACAD, Emily-Carr and NSCAD, all pretty big art schools in canada, and any SOVA grad automatically gets advance standing when transfering into them...  but I don't care about that. The fact that the school is open until midnight, the fact that the teachers encourage a very loose, crazy and off-the-charts kind of creativity (compared to some other schools which have a defined line between success and failure) and the fact that we have top-of-the-line equipment and resources (both online and physical) are big pluses.

But really, I just like it here because it feels like home. You can be whatever you want here. Some students are musicians. One girl volunteered for a radio show, one wears crazy and strange things to school. One is really into photography, one likes collage. One guy is a First Nations artist looking to refine his techniques. There's an upper level soccer player who also happens to be good at art. One girl was a broke wanderer in Australia. A couple kids from whitehorse, a few more from the prairies, one from New-Brunswick. I'm an ex-sailor who's into manga and storytelling. Some kids like cooking, some kids like partying, going out to the bars in the week. I like to stay in the residence. No one looks at me twice.

The scenery is awesome too. And then there's the opportunity to learn more about Canada and the First Nations. All our assignments have some kind of cultural context that relates to what went on here. Not just the gold rush, what was there before, and what's been there since, too.

If those aren't good reasons to go to school here, well then there's the adventure, I guess. This place is remote, but it's not disconnected. We have internet, phones, and everyone speaks english, which is a nice  break for me. On top of whatever other language they've learned elsewhere.

... hey if you want some info on the school, don't be afraid to write me an e-mail, my adress is:
stdenis_gab@live.ca   I check it from time to time, but at least once a week.