One of the most fre­quently asked ques­tions we get at Loy­al­ist is, “where’s that located again?” Seems not too many non-locals know where we are.

I can relate. Before I came to work at Loy­al­ist (and was liv­ing in Toronto) I didn’t really know where Belleville was. I remem­bered (sort-of) see­ing a sign for it on High­way 401, when I was mak­ing a trip to Ottawa or Mon­treal. It was only when I began work­ing here that I really dis­cov­ered the area.

The first sur­prise was that the Col­lege is located about 90 min­utes from the GTA, and 2 hours from Ottawa. In 40 min­utes, you’re in Kingston. You can get here by bus, train or car quickly and eas­ily. Belleville is a “feeder” city, and so con­tains busi­nesses and ser­vices for over 200,000 peo­ple. Best of all, there’s no big-city traf­fic to tan­gle with – my drive to the col­lege from down­town takes 10 min­utes, door-to-door. The city also has a thor­ough tran­sit sys­tem that goes right to the school.

Sec­ond, the Col­lege is on the doorstep to Prince Edward County, an emerg­ing tourism des­ti­na­tion, wine region and cul­tural hub for the area. Artists, pho­tog­ra­phers, film­mak­ers and other cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als are flock­ing to this area to take advan­tage of a good work-life bal­ance, but also retain the same kinds of cul­tural con­nec­tions they had in the big smoke.

Loy­al­ist is located just out­side the main area of the city, which means…. Nature! Not city-style nature, like a cou­ple of dog parks. Actual nature – con­ser­va­tion areas, trails, water­front, farms, beaches, and a whole lotta fresh air … no con­crete jun­gle, no smog alerts. We have access to a full range of out­door activ­i­ties for all sea­sons, from ski­ing to wakeboarding.

Don’t be deceived – we might be located in a small town, but we’re still con­nected to the big time! The pro­fes­sors in our pro­gram have worked for the largest broad­cast­ers and pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies in Canada, and stay cur­rent with their skills and indus­try con­nec­tions by con­tin­u­ing to do pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion work. Our stu­dents have taken intern­ships in L.A., Las Vegas, Toronto, Van­cou­ver, Mon­treal and even overseas.

If you’re think­ing about com­ing to Loy­al­ist, remem­ber: we’re not that far away, we’re located in a healthy, cre­ative com­mu­nity, and we’re well set-up to help you con­nect to the oppor­tu­ni­ties to ful­fill your dreams of work­ing in film and TV.

–Michelle Grimes, pro­fes­sor, Tele­vi­sion and New Media Production