According to the original Seeds business plan, in 1996, NSCAD University initiated the Student Art Store project. Students were invited to form teams (minimum two per team) and enter a business plan competition. The winning participants received a $2,000 repayable investment, and ground floor space to use between May 1st and August 30th. There were minimal rules, mostly to do with protocol, to stay true to selling student and alumni work, and upholding NSCAD’s name.
During its ten years of operation of the Student Art Store project, all ventures but one were successful. Students who sold their work in the Student Art Stores developed a reliance on the summer revenue, yet applications were on a steady decline, with only one entrant in the 2005 competition. Final reports from all of the student managers over the years were consistent in their complaints and suggestions. They were issues to do with the transient nature of the project, including the time restraint of move in and move out, storage issues and difficulties getting artists to pick up their work at the end of August, and aesthetic issues due to the condition of the space, poor lighting, and lack of display units.
In 2005, NSCAD gave the Student Union of NSCAD (SUNSCAD) a ground floor location on Hollis Street (what is now the Office of Extended Studies) from which to run a café and gallery. Also in 2005, the University opened its Office of Entrepreneurship and Business Development. A decision was made to end the Student Art Store project, and to develop a business plan for a permanent art store as a partnership between SUNSCAD and administration. This was the beginnings of Seeds. The university took over control of Seeds in 2007, for easier management of the gallery.
Seeds’ original mandate was to offer students and alumni professional and pedagogical opportunities to sell work in a commercial setting and acquire the necessary skills to do so. The areas of business it offered were to sell student and alumni work in all media, to provide a dedicated gallery space, to establish a network of sales and promotional opportunity, have assistant and internship positions available, and the gallery manager act as a mentor. In its prime, Seeds put a substantial amount of money into the pockets of students and alumni. Seeds sold student work on consignment only, with various percentages of overhead during it’s lifetime, always following a not-for-profit model. It provided a service and promotional tool that no other arts university in Canada did. There were programs offered such as renting and a lease to own, which gave artists an opportunity to have their work featured in various businesses and offices around the city, and allow them to make an income whilst doing so.
Seeds and the Anna Leonowens gallery worked closely together. Seeds’ mandate complimented that of the Anna’s, which was to curate and exhibit work in a climate free of commercial interest. Where the director of the Anna is not in a position to deal with sales, the manager of Seeds had the ability to promote the sales of work of artists showing in the Anna. There were often events and openings planned concurrently, and often Seeds provided an “Artist Spotlight” for artists who were exhibiting at the Anna.
Seeds was closed in 2013 at the ripe old age of 6, after a decision made by the board of governors without consulting with the student body. The reasoning of the decision was that Seeds had a deficit since 2007, losing $40,000 per year towards the end. Seeds was a victim to belt-tightening due to the adherence to a strict sustainability plan implemented after the province demanded that NSCAD pay back the debt it has incurred. The reasons why Seeds was losing money is a highly contentious issue. Many will argue that the decline in Seeds’ success was due to a location change in 2010, when the gallery moved from it’s original location on Hollis Street, to Marginal Road, across the street from the Port Campus. This move meant that the gallery was paying rent for the first time and the clientele changed from downtown business people and foot traffic to tourists and cruise ship passengers.