DAWSON CITY – “Yukon College is pleased to offer the Visual Arts program at the Yukon School of Visual Arts (SOVA) in Dawson City in the upcoming academic year.

“As of the end of July, the program has sufficient students registered to run.

“Interested applicants are encouraged to continue to apply, as SOVA will accept applications and registrations through to September 8.”

That was the short statement Yukon College released Monday afternoon after several days of media reports casting SOVA’s future into doubt.

Deborah Bartlette, the college’s vice-president academic, said in an interview this morning it was in the best interests of both YSOVA and Yukon College that the program in Dawson continues to be successful.

The program has been in operation since 2007.

In that time frame, Bartlette told the Star, it has been the case that fine arts programs across the country have been struggling to keep enrolment up. YSOVA’s situation is not unusual.

YSOVA provides the first year of a Fine Arts Diploma, after which students may choose to attend one of the four colleges across the country with which the college has links.

These are the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax.