CAZENOVIA — On Jan. 18, CazArts creative alliance gathered representatives of the local arts community at the Cazenovia Public Library & Museum (CPL) to begin exploring options for the future of the arts without Cazenovia College.

On Dec. 7, 2022, the nearly 200-year-old college announced its decision to permanently close following the spring 2023 semester due to financial difficulties.

The meeting of the arts community explored how the closing is expected to impact the arts, where things stand with the college and what is being done, ideas for repurposing the college’s facilities, and ways the arts can aid in the reimagining of the community’s future.

The following organizations were represented: CazArts, Catherine Cummings Theatre, Cazenovia Artisans, Carpenter’s Barn Studio Artists, Cazenovia Area Community Development Association (CACDA), Cazenovia Area Painters, Cazenovia Art Trail, Cazenovia College Art & Design Program, Cazenovia College Art Gallery in Reisman Hall, Cazenovia Counterpoint, Cazenovia Forum, Cazenovia Heritage, Cazenovia Preservation Foundation (CPF), CPL, Cazenovia Watercolor Society, Greater Cazenovia Area Chamber of Commerce, Lorenzo State Historic Site, National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, New Woodstock Free Library, and Stone Quarry Hill Art Park.

“Many of us were finding that no matter where we went, we were hearing conversations [about the college],” said CazArts President Geoffrey Navias, who facilitated the meeting. “People care about the college closing and are worried and upset, so there were lots of conversations. Lots of it was [based on] misinformation or not full information or just no information at all. So, we thought, ‘We need to call a meeting and start to get as accurate of information as we can out to [the arts community] and talk about what we are going to do.’ That is what we are doing tonight.”

Before proceeding with the bulk of the evening’s agenda, Navias took a few moments to acknowledge the many facilities, programs and supports that the community is losing due to the college closing.

The college consists of the main village campus, the Stephen M. Schneeweiss Athletic Complex at the end of Liberty Street, the Jephson Campus (South Campus) on Albany Street, the Catherine Cummings Theatre on Lincklaen Street, other village properties, and the Equine Education Center outside the village on Woodfield Road.

Navias invited the attendees to share the aspects of the college that they are currently grieving.

The group came up with a list that included concerns about the loss of the following: students and parents; diversity; the print shop and bookstore; programs/events that connect the college to the community such as Jazz-N-Caz, Great Minds/Great Ideas Lecture Series and continuing education programs; tourism; the theatre and art gallery; the athletic complex; well-maintained campus gardens, facilities, and streets; jobs; and the community’s identity.

“[This list] is on top of the fact that we are grieving a couple of years of the pandemic and hard political times; there is a lot of grief that we are carrying with us,” said Navias.

Cazenovia College closing background, current situation

CACDA Executive Director Lauren Lines summarized the circumstances that led to the college’s decision to close.

Lines explained that the institution was faced with a “perfect storm” of multiple external considerations, including unfavorable demographics.

According to Lines, Cazenovia College is certainly not alone in this respect. A lot of small colleges across the county are experiencing similar enrollment issues, and the issue is about to get even worse.

Lines explained that the population of college-age Americans is about to crash due to a demographic aftershock of the Great Recession. The higher education industry refers to what is coming as “the enrollment cliff.”

“Small colleges are preparing for [it], but it hasn’t even happened yet,” said Lines. “We were already experiencing locally a drop in enrollment, then came the Excelsior Scholarship that New York State offered at SUNY schools.”

The Excelsior Scholarship allows eligible students to attend New York State’s public colleges and universities tuition-free.

Lines stated that although Cazenovia College offered “tremendous” financial aid opportunities, the marketing of free tuition hurt the private institution.

The next blow to the college was the COVID pandemic, which resulted in decreased enrollment and increased expenditures.

“It was kind of like one hit after another in a short period of time,” said Lines. “It seemed like the prospects were good for refinancing their debt. All through this past summer and even into the fall, it seemed like a done deal, and then the bond market fell apart in the United States. It was just one more in a series of unfortunate circumstances that led us here. The college had $25 million in bonds that [they defaulted on this fall]. The collateral for those bonds is the real estate.”

Lines continued by reporting that the college negotiated with the bondholders to be allowed to operate for the spring 2023 semester, during which the college will assist its students with their transferring plans and provide additional supportive services.

According to Lines, the bondholders are getting ready to hire a broker to disperse the real estate.

Upcoming planning sessions

In partnership with other local agencies, CACDA is currently working to quickly establish a planning process to begin developing a clear vision for the post-Cazenovia College use(s) of the campus that will have the greatest long-term positive impact on the community.

Lines said CACDA and CPF are working to organize an initial “visioning” session, which will lead to additional forums that will give the business community and residents opportunities to provide input on potential future uses of campus properties.

The goal, according to Lines, is to put together a planning document that can be used to market the campus to potential investors.

“The idea [is] that we would like to keep the campus whole,” said Lines. “We want to have a future use that includes jobs and [does] not necessarily carve up the campus but keeps it intact.”

Lines added that a higher education use would be ideal, but it might not be an option, so CACDA and its partners are working to identify the “highest and best” uses for the property that would benefit the community, create jobs, and maintain the vibrancy of Cazenovia.

She concluded by stating that the planning process will not only benefit the community but will also help the bondholders to get the highest return on their investment.

CPF Executive Director Jen Wong then took the podium to provide more information on the initial planning events that CPF and CACDA are organizing.

The first event will be limited to a small, focused group of 20 to 25 attendees who have professional planning experience, knowledge of the community, and/or other specific skillsets and backgrounds such as development and redevelopment for example and will bring their perspectives to some of the options on the table for the college properties.

“We wanted to keep it small and nimble and really pull in the professionals within our community, with the idea that we can then pass this information to a professional planner who will take it to the next level,” said Wong.

The hope, according to Wong, is that doing some of the work now with locally available skills and resources will enable the planner to get a little further along in their process a little faster.

The first part of the initial meeting will focus on holistic solutions for the entire campus/main campus. The second part will explore options for some of the properties outside the main campus, like the theatre, equine center, and Jephson Campus.

“Some of those solutions for the whole campus/main campus might include some or all the peripheral properties, [and] some of those solutions might not be inclusive of all of those peripheral properties, so we want to spend a little focused time thinking about those as well,” said Wong.

Wong wrapped up by stating that the initial small-group workshop will be held within the next two to three weeks and will set the framework for a larger community forum.

College closures in other communities

Former CPL Director Betsy Kennedy dedicated her presentation to looking at what happened in other communities when their colleges closed.

Kennedy first highlighted Poultney, Vermont’s Green Mountain College, a private liberal arts institution that was forced to close in 2019.

In 2020, the college was purchased by Raj Bhakta, the founder of WhistlePig Whisky, and his wife, Danhee. According to Kennedy, the couple opened a private school and has been working with the town and community development agency to make the campus a destination.

Kennedy noted that she was unsure of exactly how the entrepreneurs aim to make the campus a destination, but she appreciates their efforts to “follow through.”

In contrast, Kennedy pointed to Daniel Webster College in Nashua, New Hampshire, which closed in 2017. The following year, the college was purchased by two Chinese investors. As of 2021, no plans were in motion and the college stood vacant with $811,000 owed in back taxes.

Kennedy said her research also turned up colleges that have been repurposed as healthcare centers and housing developments, absorbed by neighboring colleges or universities, purchased by a local government for a possible new high school, partially purchased by a city for recreation opportunities such as a gym, trails and other uses and used for workplace development training for non-college jobs or for addiction recovery care.

“It’s just remarkable when you start doing the research how many colleges have closed in the last ten years, and it’s anticipated that more will be closing,” said Kennedy.

She added that she recently read an article announcing that SUNY Delhi is headed in the same direction.

“Even SUNY colleges are having trouble,” said Kennedy. “. . . They have the same issues of demographics. You can’t invent students when there aren’t any. I noticed Oswego is advertising ‘Finish your degree,’ trying to get adult students to come. So, everyone is scrambling. We have a very tough road ahead, but [the people in this] group are doers, and there are even more doers out there. Looking forward, let’s try to make something good happen here as best we can.”

How much say does the community have?

When asked how much control the community will have over what happens with the college properties, Lines responded that the answer is “tricky.”

“There are transactions that are going to happen, and the community is not officially part of either side of that transaction,” she said. “So, I think all we can do is work hard to bring good prospects to those that do have the decision-making power.”

She added that the village will have power when it comes to the zoning of the properties.

For example, the main campus, athletic center, and Jephson Campus are in C-1 and C-2 zoning districts, which are exclusively for post-secondary educational uses. Therefore, any other proposed use will require a zoning change.

“That gives the village a bit of a circuit-breaker,” said Lines. “So, that’s a decision-making ability; that’s a little bit of leverage that we have locally. . . To the extent we can plan and have ideas and potentially attract prospects, that’s something we should certainly do.”

Maintaining a strong arts community

Next, Navias proposed a few initiatives to help strengthen and nurture the arts community and support Cazenovia throughout the upcoming years of transition.

He suggested pursuing grants to fund coordination and marketing, taking advantage of CazArts’ all-arts community calendar, working to keep the village main street vibrant, and encouraging members of the arts community to attend and support each other’s events.

Upcoming events throughout the college’s spring semester include “Seussical the Musical” at the college theatre, as well as BFA senior exhibitions, a juried exhibition of student work, and a faculty show in the college art gallery.

CPL Interim Director Elisha Davies provided a brief overview of the all-arts community calendar, which will enable people to search for upcoming arts, heritage, and cultural events in one place. Cazenovia-area organizations and businesses are invited to list their events on the calendar by filling out a simple online form. The calendar is currently active on the CazArts website.

Focus groups

To wrap up the session, Navias invited the group to help brainstorm focus areas for the arts community.

“When things happen, [we want] to be prepared to deal with them,” said Navias. “If in a year and a half, suddenly the theatre becomes available, we desperately want to have an idea of what we want to do.”

In addition to the theatre, Navias also proposed focus groups for the college’s art facilities, its architecture and heritage, Jazz-n-Caz, and the print shop.

The group’s many suggestions included planning for the loss of the college bookstore, which offers art supplies, local artwork, Caz merchandise, and more; preserving the college’s archives and art collections; exploring future uses for the equine center; and addressing the loss of social services and support for underrepresented populations.

During the brainstorming session, Cazenovia College Professor of Art Kim Waale, M.F.A., pointed out that the institution has three buildings dedicated to the arts and that one-third of the student body is majoring in art & design.

In response, Lines said she thinks it would be helpful for her to be able to highlight in the planning document the fact that those buildings have been heavily invested in and “specially appointed with equipment and infrastructure for the arts.”

“As far as planning for a future use for these facilities, they are special use buildings; they are not just shells,” Lines said. “. . . [The Art & Design building] could be turnkey to make it an art center where you have studios and resources the public could use. Communities apply for grants and spend countless dollars creating that, and it exists there, so you would hope that the future use would make use of that huge investment that has already occurred.”

According to Navias, CazArts will be calling additional meetings over the next couple of years.

“This isn’t a one-shot kind of meeting,” he said. “. . . It’s a very fluid situation from what I can tell, so we are going to be meeting again as things develop and people have ideas, but we want to give Lauren and the mayor and whoever else as much support and oomph as we can in the directions that we want to go.”

At the end of the session, attendees were invited to fill out forms to provide information on the role the arts play in their lives, their concerns about the college closing, the challenges they see for the arts community moving forward, and a project area that they would like to help work on.

“It’s kind of hard to hear and think about what is going to happen, but on the other hand, there are lots of opportunities that are going to be coming up also,” concluded Navias. “. . . CazArts will just keep on trying to coordinate as best we can, and you folks tell us how we can do better.”

CazArts is a creative alliance of area arts organizations, individual artists, and members of the public, that works to promote the creation and appreciation of arts in the greater Cazenovia area.

The organization believes that thriving arts and cultural activity are the hallmarks of a vibrant community.

“CazArts promotes, educates, and advocates for the arts to policymakers, funders, community leaders, and the public,” the organization’s website states. “We are a stronger community when we work together. CazArts is a hub that serves the visual, performing, folk, written, and other disciplines of art by facilitating educational and professional development opportunities.”

For more information on CazArts, visit cazarts.com.