Kentucky College of Art and Design (KyCAD) is officially accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The college had been independent for six years and is the first new college of art to gain accreditation, when a college achieves college standards and is recognized for it.
KyCAD President, Moira Scott Payne, reflected on her initial reaction to the accreditation, “I had a moment of intense joy and energy and relief. And then the next morning, I woke up and thought, right. We’ve got a lot more work to do.”
Currently, the school has 29 students and is excited to continue to expand. Now that the college is accredited, these students are now allowed to apply for federal aid and transfer their credits to other colleges.
In an email, Kevin Wilson, Director of Communications and Public Relations at KyCAD, said, “During Moira’s tenure, I have seen this Old Louisville-based organization become a world-class art college for the entire state in which we really do see the ‘Commonwealth as Campus’”.
The Story:
In 2009, Churchill G. Davenport founded KyCAD with the goal to create an independent art school. Payne came to KyCAD in 2017 in order to accomplish this dream.
Shortly after Payne joined, the college became an independent institution in 2018, separating from Spalding University after being a part of it for eight years.
Afterwards, Payne brought in a small, young team to achieve accreditation. Many of them did not have much experience, but had the energy and drive to get the task done. Through these employees, the college was able to be built from the ground up.
“You know, every single person in this college has skills and… they’re smart and they’re driving this college forward,” Payne said.
Payne remarked that her Chief Financial Officer started from a box of papers on the floor and now has an extremely functional finance office.
By 2019, they acquired their license and students started to enroll. It was a bold move on their part as the school did not have an accredited program, but these few students helped to build the program into what it is today.
KyCAD received its license from the Council of Postsecondary Education (CPE) and started working with SACSCOC to achieve accreditation on Dec. 16, 2024. SACSCOC had KyCAD meet 73 standards, looking deeply into how KyCAD functions and if it is qualified. The college did not have a single recommendation on what to change and met all of the standards, which is extremely uncommon, allowing them to earn their accreditation in Fall of 2024.
Payne reflected on their next steps, “we’ve built the base, we’ve got our accreditation, and now our job is to really figure out what kind of art college do we want to be?”
