Victoria College of Art (VCA) is a private, non-profit art college located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1974 as the Northwest Coast Institute of Arts, the college offers Diploma programs in Fine Arts, Applied Arts Illustration, and Applied Arts Animation. It has no connection whatsoever with Visual College of Art and Design (VCAD) in Vancouver which is owned by the for-profit education company Eminata. History Victoria College of Art began its life in 1974 as the Northwest Coast Institute of Arts founded by Bill Bartlett, an American artist who moved to Victoria in 1971. It was an artist-run school whose staff also included Jack Wise, Bill Porteous, Flemming Jorgensen, and James Gordaneer. Northwest Coast Institute of Arts shared the building on Lower Fort Street with Open Space, an exhibition gallery and performance centre founded in 1972 by Gene Miller, another American expatriate. In 1976 the art school was renamed Victoria College of Art with Joseph Kyle as its first director and moved to the former Bank Street Elementary School building where it has remained until the present day. Bill Bartlett took over running Open Space after Miller resigned. Kyle would serve as VCA's director for the next 25 years and in 1981 led the whole school in a year-long experiment in geometric abstract painting. In the late 1970s, Joseph Kyle's son Paul, who had also been a student at the school opened Kyle's Gallery on Fort Street in Victoria which over the next 10 years showcased the work of the school's faculty. Joseph Kyle later opened the short-lived Victoria College of Art Gallery on Yates Street. In 2006, the newly opened for-profit University Canada West (UCW) bought Victoria College of Art. The intention of the university's president David Strong was to expand UCW's program offerings and start a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The college was subsequently re-branded as "Victoria College of Art and Design" to reflect the proposed expansion of its curriculum. However, within two years of its acquisition, enrollment at the art college had dropped from 150 students to 12, and UCW abandoned its attempt to start the new degree. In November 2008, the Eminata Group bought the financially troubled university and with it, the art college. Eminata then opened a separate institution, Vancouver College of Art and Design, in April 2009. It shared the abbreviation VCAD with the fine arts college in Victoria, but not